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Elizabeth Delighted in the Mystic Beauty of the Prairie 


(Girls of Silver Spur Ranch) 


(Page 13) 



0 


THE GIRLS 


OF 


0 


SIC 

VER SPUR RA! 

1 SY r 

GRACEMacGOWAN COOKE 

ANNE MCQUEEN 

CH 





ILLUSTRATED BY 

FLORENCE WHITE WILLIAMS 


■ 

M.A. DONOHUE ^CO, 

CHICAGO 

m 




COPYRIGHT 1913 
BY 

M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY 



©CI.A350893 


LIST OF CHAPTERS 


I A Question of Names 1 

II Roy Rides to Silver Spur 25 

III A Package and a Leather-Brown Phaeton 47 

IV A Jewel of Great Price 83 

V The Silver Spur Bakery 107 

VI A Shiny Black Box 137 

VII The Wire Cutter 167 

VIII A Partner of the Sun 201 

IX The Rose by Another Name .... 229 




The Girls of Silver Spur Ranch 

Chapter I 

A Question of Names 

The girls of Silver Spur ranch were all 
very busy helping Mary, the eldest, with 
her wedding sewin g. Silver Spur was rather 
a pretentious name for John Spooner's little 
Texas cattle-farm, but Elizabeth, the second 
daughter, who had an ear attuned to sweet 
sounds, had chosen it; as a further con- 
firmation of the fact she had covered an 
old spur with silver-leaf and hung it over 
the doorway. The neighboring ranchers 
had laughed, at first, and old Jonah Bean, 
the one cowboy left in charge of the small 
Spooner herd, always sniffed scornfully when 
he had occasion to mention the name of his 
ranch, declaring that The Tin Spoon would 
suit it much better. However, in time 


2 


THE GIRLS OF 


everybody became used to it, and Silver 
Spur the ranch remained — somehow Eliza- 
beth always had her own way. 

This young lady sat by the window in the 
little living-room where they were all at work, 
and carefully embroidered a big and cor- 
pulent on a sofa-pillow for Mary, who 
was to marry, in a few days, a young man 
from another state who owned the eu- 
phonious name of Bellamy — a name Eliza- 
beth openly envied him. 

“I do think Spooner is such a horrid, 
commonplace sort of name,’^ she declared 
with emphatic disapproval. Aren’t you 
glad you’ll soon be rid of it, Mary?” 

“Um-m,” murmured Mary, paying scant 
heed to Elizabeth’s query * she was hemming 
a ruffle to trim the little muslin frock which 
was the last unfinished garment of her 
trousseau, and she was too busy for argu- 
ment. 

^‘As if,” continued Elizabeth,^^ the name 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


3 


wasn’t odious enough, father must needs go 
and choose a s'poon for his brand! And he 
might so easily have made it a fleur-de-lys — 
fairly rubbing it in, as if it was something to 
be proud of!” 

Just then Mary, finding that the machine 
needle kept jabbing in one place, looked 
about for a cause, and perceived Elizabeth 
tranquilly rocking upon one of the un- 
hemmed breadths of her ruffle. 

be much obliged if you’ll take your 
chair off my ruffle. Saint Ehzabeth,” she 
laughed, tugging at the crumpled cloth, 
^‘and just don’t worry over the name — ^try 
and live up to your looks.” 

Elizabeth blushed a little as she stooped 
to disentangle the cloth from her rocker; 
she was a very handsome girl, altogether 
unlike her sisters, who were all rather short 
and dark, and plump looking. Cousin Han- 
nah Pratt declared, as much alike as bis- 
cuits cut out of the same batch of dough. 


4 


THE GIRLS OF 


Elizabeth was about sixteen, tall and fair 
and slim, with large, serious blue eyes and 
long, thick blond hair, which she wore 
plaited in the form of a coronet or halo about 
her head — ^privately, she much preferred 
the halo, as best befitting the character of 
her favorite heroine. Saint Elizabeth, a 
canonized queen whom she desired to re- 
semble in looks and deportment. 

^‘One would have to be a saint to bear 
with the name of Spooner,” she said, rather 
crossly, as she tossed Mary her ruffle. 

Cousin Hannah Pratt, rocking in the 
biggest chair, which she filled to overflow- 
ing, lifted her eyes from her work and re- 
garded Elizabeth meditatively. ^‘How’d 
you like to swap it for Mudd, Libby?” she 
asked tranquilly. 

Elizabeth shuddered — she hated to be 
called Libby, it was so commonplace; and 
Cousin Hannah persisted in calling her that 
when she knew how it annoyed her. Eliza- 



W / 

, 3 ^ 

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1 I& - 

< 3 ? ' 

1 

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^ 



Just Look Out of the Window and Watch This Pkocession 
Coming Up the Road 

(Girls of Silver Spur Rar.ch) 


Page 7 



SILVER SPUR RANCH 


5 


beth was thankful that Cousin Hannah — 
who kept a boarding-house in Emerald, the 
near-by village, and had kindly come over 
to help with the wedding — was only kin- 
in-law, which was bad enough; to have such 
an uncultured person for a blood relation 
would have been worse. 

^^Mudd! O, poor Elizabeth!” giggled 
Ruth, the third of the Spooner sisters, a 
merry-hearted girl of fifteen, who looked 
on all the world with mirthful eyes. Cousin 
Hannah, what made you think of such an 
awful name?” 

Don’t be so noisy, Ruth,” cautioned 
Mary, with what seemed unnecessary sever- 
ity. Mother’s neuralgia is bad to day. 
You can hear every sound right through in 
her room. Cousin Hannah, won’t you please 
make her a cup of tea? I think it would 
do her good; you make such nice tea.” 

^‘Sure and certain!” agreed Cousin Han- 
nah, heartily. Rising ponderously from 


6 


THE GIRLS OF 


her chair, she moved on heavy tiptoes out 
into the kitchen, the thin boards creaking 
as she walked. 

“ I might also remark that a person would 
have to be a saint to bear with Cousin Han- 
nah,” said Elizabeth, “she doesn’t intend 
it, maybe, but she does rile me so!” 

“I don’t see why anybody would want 
to be a saint; I’d heap rather be a knight,” 
spoke up little Harvie, nicknamed by her 
family “the Babe.” She lay curled up on 
a lounge in the comer, ostensibly puUing out 
bastings, but really reading a worn old copy 
of Ivanhoe, which was the book of her 
heart. There were no children living near 
the lonely little ranch, and the Babe, who 
was only ten, solaced herself with the com- 
pany of heroes and heroines of romance — - 
much preferring the heroes. 

“I’d rather be ’most anything than a 
^ mover’,” declared Elizabeth, emphatically. 
“And if you want to know the reason, just 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 7 

look out of the window and watch this pro- 
cession coming up from the road/’ 

Ruth and the Babe ran to the window; 
Mary, leaving her machine, slipped quietly 
out of the room to see about her mother. 
Also Mary desired to have a little private 
talk with Cousin Hannah. 

It was a pitifully ludicrous spectacle that 
the girls beheld. Up the driveway leading 
to the house came a dreary procession of 
those unfortunates known in western par- 
lance as movers,” family tramps who fol- 
low the harvests in hope of getting a little 
work in the fields; always moving on when 
the crops are gathered, or planted, as the 
case may be — ^movers never became dwellers 
in any local territory. 

These movers were, in appearance, even 
more wretched than usual. In a little 
covered cart drawn by a dimutive donkey, 
sat a pale woman with a baby in her arms, 
and two small and pallid children crouching 


8 


THE GIRLS OF 


beside her. Behind the cart the father of 
the family pushed valiantly, in a kindly 
endeavor to help along the donkey, while 
just ahead of that overburdened animal 
walked a small boy, holding, as further in- 
ducement, an alluring ear of corn just out 
of reach of the donkey’s nose. Certainly 
the family justified Elizabeth’s declaration 
that ’most anything was preferable to being 
a mover! 

Ruth and Elizabeth both laughed at the 
comical procession, but the Babe’s eyes 
were full of pity. ^‘The poor things are 
coming up for water,” she said sorrowfully. 
“Father always let them get water at our 
well — ^I’U go show them the way.” And 
she ran out to meet the movers and show 
them the well at the back of the house, 
where they filled their water-jugs and 
quenched the thirst of the patient and un- 
satisfied donkey. 

“I wish to goodness Father never had 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


9 


gone to Cuba/’ sighed Ruth, as she turned 
from the window to take up her button- 
holes, ^^it is so awfully lonesome without 
him.” 

think it was splendid,” said Elizabeth, 
with shining eyes, “to be among the very 
first of the volunteers. And maybe he’ll 
do some deed of daring and be made an 
officer. Think how nice it will be to say, 
when the war is over, that our father figures 
in history — ^maybe as one of the foremost 
heroes of the Spanish-American war.” 

“You’re always dreaming of things that 
never happen, Elizabeth,” scoffed practical 
Ruth. “Of course he won’t be made a big 
officer. If he comes back just a plain 
Captain I’ll be mighty glad.” 

“0, well, the world’s greatest men and 
women have always been dreamers,” as- 
serted Ehzabeth, cheerfully, “I can’t help 
being born different from the rest of you, 
can I?” 


10 


THE GIRLS OF 


I reckon not — ^but you can start 
a fire in the stove. People must eat, no 
matter how great they are. IPs your time 
to get upper.” 

dear, it’s bad to be bom poor!” sighed 
Elizabeth, as she arose reluctantly. ‘‘Es- 
pecially when there’s a longing within you 
to do perfectly fine things, and not mere 
drudgery. I wish I were a princess — ^it 
seems to me I was bom to rule. I’m sure 
I would be a wise and capable sovereign. 
Well, even queens stoop to minister to the 
lowly, like Saint Elizabeth, so Fll go get 
supper for the Spooners!” 

And with her head in the clouds, the 
throneless queen marched majestically 
kitchenward, to engage in the humble oc- 
cupation of cooking supper for her family. 

Voices from her mother’s closed door 
reached her ears as she passed. Elizabeth 
would have scorned eavesdropping, but — 
the ranch being located in the prairie region 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


n 


of Texas, where lumber is so scarce that 
just as little as possible is used in building, 
and the walls being merely board partitions, 
she could not help hearing Cousin Hannah’s 
voice, always strident, rising above her 
mother’s and Mary’s lower tones. 

“ Fiddle-diddle! What’s the use of mincin’ 
matters anyway? She’s bound to know, 
sooner or later — ought to know without — 
tellin’, if she had a grain o’ common sense. 
Ain’t a single, solitary thing about her 
favors the rest of you all.” 

The words sounded very clearly in Eliza- 
beth’s startled ears, arousing a train of 
troubled thoughts in her mind, as she moved 
mechanically about the kitchen. She felt 
quite certain that they were talking about 
her, and that Cousin Hannah wanted to 
teU her something that Mrs. Spooner and 
Mary didn’t want known. 

^‘I wonder what it can be,” pondered 
Elizabeth, as she slowly stirred the hominy 


12 


THE GIRLS OF 


pot. Whether Cousin Hannah thinks 
so or not, I’ve always known I wasn’t like 
the rest.” 

This was quite true; Elizabeth, though 
she dearly loved the parents and sisters who 
had always. Cousin Hannah declared, 
spoiled her, yet could not help feeling that 
she was, mentally and physically superior to 
them, ‘‘made of finer clay,” she would have 
put it. People often remarked on this lack 
of resemblance to the others, and when they 
did so in Mrs. Spooner’s presence she always 
hastily changed the subject. Elizabeth 
had often wondered why. Somehow there 
seemed always to have been a mystery 
surrounding her — something that, if ex- 
plained, would prove very thrilling indeed. 

Occupied with these thoughts, she moved 
from cupboard to table, and from table to 
fire, preparing the evening meal with deft 
skill, for anything Elizabeth Spooner did 
she did a little better than other people. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


13 


Outside the window stretched a vast 
brown-green plain, bounded by a horizon 
line like a ring. There was monotony in the 
prospect, and yet a curious sense of ad- 
venture and romance, as there is about the 
sea. Elizabeth delighted in the mystic 
beauty of the prairie, yet to-day her fine 
eyes studied the level unseeingly as she 
glanced through the window, looking to see 
if Jonah Bean was in sight; the glories of 
sunset that flooded the plain passed almost 
unnoticed. She was thinking too earnestly 
on her own problem to observe the outside 
world. 

If I were by chance adopted, I certainly 
have a right to know who I am,” Elizabeth 
pondered, as she set the table beautifully, 
with certain artistic touches that the clum- 
sier hands of the other girls somehow could 
never manage. ^^It won’t make any dif- 
ference in my feelings for father and mother 
and the girls if I should happen to be bom 


14 


THE GIRLS OF 


in a higher station of life than theirs — 
though I can easily see how poor mother 
could think it might; I trust I’m above 
being snobbish — ” Elizabeth’s eyes began 
to glow with a resolute purpose — “I’m go- 
ing to find out, that’s what ! I’ll make Cousin 
Hannah tell me. She’s so big it’s awful to 
sleep with her, and she snores like thunder. 
Mary knows how bad it is, and how I hate 
it, that’s the reason she made me sleep with 
Ruth, when one of us had to give up our 
place. To-night I’ll make Mary take the 
Babe’s place with Mother, who might need 
her in the night, and I’ll sleep with Cousin 
Hannah — ^and find out what she knows 
about me!” 

Jonah Bean came stamping up the steps 
just then to wash up for supper at the water- 
shelf just outside the kitchen door; inform- 
ing anybody who chose to listen that he was 
mighty tired — ^there was two men’s work to 
do on the Spooner ranch, anyhow, and he 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


15 


was gittin’ old, same’s other folks. Glanc- 
ing in at the open door he observed who was 
the cook. 

Humph! So it’s your night for gittin’ 
supper? Well, I hope the truck’ll taste as 
fancy as that air table looks.” 

*^Sure, Jonah,” answered Elizabeth, crit- 
ically observing the effect of her handiwork. 
^^If you’ll just step outside and get me a 
big bunch of those yellow cactus-blooms to 
put in this brown pitcher it’ll be perfect, 
and I’ll see that you get a big painted cup 
full of coffee.” 

“Never could see no use in weeds — ^fuU o’ 
stickers at that,” grumbled Jonah, as he 
turned to go out for the flowers that were 
growing on the great cactus in the fence 
comer. “Hope that air coffee’ll be strong 
and hot, though.” 

The coffee was strong and hot, and the 
hominy was white and well-cooked; the 
bacon was brown and crisp and the biscuits 


16 


THE GIRLS OF 


light as feathers. Elizabeth dished the 
supper in the flowered dishes kept for com- 
pany, because she could not bear the heavy 
earthenware they used every day. She 
filled the squatty brown pitcher with the 
big bunch of golden blooms old Jonah bore 
gingerly, careful of the thorns, and then 
lighted the lamp with the red shade. Really 
they didn’t need a lamp, but the glow from 
the red shade was so pretty that she lighted 
it anyway — she so loved beautiful things. 

She arranged her mother’s tray daintily, 
laying a cactus-bloom, freed of its thorns, 
beside the plate — somehow she felt as if she 
was preparing for some extra occasion. 

declare Libby always cooks like she 
was fixin’ for company,” said Cousin Han- 
nah, admiringly, as she sat at the gracefully 
arranged table. ^‘Oughter keep boarders, 
and she wouldn’t find no time for extra 
kinks.” 

Elizabeth shuddered a little as she poured 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


17 


Jonah’s coffee in the biggest cup, with the 
painted motto on it — ^how she would hate 
to do such a sordid thing as keep boarders! 

But she smiled very affably on Cousin 
Hannah, and asked if she wouldn’t teU her 
how to make spice cake — she always noticed 
that Cousin Hannah’s cake was so good. 
She wished to get the recipe to write in her 
scrap-book. 

“ Shore and certain,” said Cousin Hannah, 
amiably, pleased at Elizabeth’s praise, “ I’ll 
be glad to write it off. You’re ’bout as 
good a cook as Ruth, though I always did 
say she was the bom cook o’ the family — ^you 
seemin’ to be a master hand at managin’” 

That she was indeed a master hand at the 
art, Elizabeth proved that night, when with 
a few energetic commands, she sent Mary 
obediently to her mother’s room, to take 
the Babe’s place, who in turn was put to 
sleep with Ruth. 

^^Why in the world don’t you let Ruth 


18 


THE GIRLS OF 


sleep with Cousin Hannah?’^ argued Mary, 
“you know how you hate to — and she 
doesn’t mind. 

“Because it isn’t fair that I shouldn’t 
have my turn as well as the others — ^it’s 
disagreeable to all of us. Now you just let 
me have my way, and say nothing else about 
it!” declared Elizabeth with authority, and 
as usual, she was allowed to have her way. 

While Cousin Hannah undressed, moving 
ponderously about the little room, Elizabeth 
sat on the side of the bed, brushing her 
long blond hair, watching with critical ad- 
miration of the beautiful, the gleams of 
red and gold the lamplight cast upon its 
glittering strands, and formulating in her 
mind a plan to find out the secret of her 
birth — ^if secret there was. 

She finally decided that plain speech was 
better than beating about the bush, and 
spoke in a carefully suppressed tone. 

“Cousin Hannah,” she said, with whisper- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


19 


ing decisiveness, “ I want to know what you, 
and Mother and Mary were talking about in 
her room.’^ 

“Why, Libby exclaimed Cousin Han- 
nah, plumping down upon the bed in her 
astonishment, “did you go and listen to 
what we was sayin7’^ 

“Indeed I didn’t! But I couldn’t help 
hearing you — and I think it’s my right to 
know, if you were talking about me.” 

“But your Ma — but Jennie said she 
didn’t want you should know,” argued the 
bewildered Cousin Hannah, “land o’ livin’, 
girl, ain’t you got a home, and people to 
care for you? Why in tunket can’t you be 
satisfied with that?” 

Certainity made Elizabeth calmly tri- 
umphant. 

“I have felt, for a long time — ever since 
I can remember, that I was different from 
the rest of my family, though you didn’t 
give me credit for having sense enough to 


20 


THE GIRLS OF 


see it. Of course, I love them all dearly 
but I can’t help feeling that it’s my right 
to know the truth, whatever it is. Cousin 
Hannah, is or is not my name Spooner?” 

Well,” Cousin Hannah evaded the ques- 
tion, ^‘what would you get out of it if your 
name wasn’t Spooner?” 

Elizabeth leaped up softly, she held her 
hairbrush as though it were a scepter; her 
long hair flowed and billowed about her as 
she walked with majestic tread, up and down 
the tiny room — she was seeing visions! 

If her name was not Spooner! That 
would mean that her birth was, she felt sure, 
indefinitely illustrious some way. Of course 
she would never desert the people who loved 
her, and whom she would always love, but — 
might not something come of it that would 
be grand for them all? 

Libby,” Cousin Hannah’s eyes followed 
the moving figure with a distressed look in 
them, ‘‘your ma — ^Jennie Spooner — ^your 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


21 


true ma, if love and tenderness count for 
anything, never wanted you told. Mary 
knows, and she don’t want you should know. 
When I watch your uppity ways I teU ’em 
it’s high time they explained the situation 
to you.” 

^‘The situation — Elizabeth hung breath- 
lessly on her words with shining eyes, and 
an eager tremble of her lips. 

^‘Yes, the situation,” repeated Cousin 
Hannah heavily. '^Jennie Spooner had a 
tough time raisin’ you — a troublesome 
young’un as ever I see. You teethed so 
hard that it looked like she never knew what 
a night’s rest was till you got ’em through 
the gums. I used to come over here many 
a time and help her j what with Ruth bein’ 
so nigh the same age, she had her hands 
full. It was kept from you for fear of 
hurtin’ your feelin’s, if you must know.” 

*‘How could it hurt my feelings?” ques- 
tioned Elizabeth, a little puzzled. love 


22 


THE GIRLS OF 


them all — ^but they should have told me. 
They ought to have known they couldn’t 
change — ” a swan to a duckling had been 
on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped in 
time, ^^me to a Spooner, even by their love 
and kindness.” 

‘‘Change you to a Spooner?” slow wrath 
mounted to Cousin Hannah’s face. She 
caught Elizabeth’s arm as the girl passed 
by. ^‘I reckon they couldn’t make a 
Spooner out o’ you, that’s a fact. The 
Spooners, bein’, so far’s known to me, re- 
spectable householders — ” 

“But not what my people were, suggested 
Elizabeth, her whole face alight, her eyes 
shining with eagerness. “You must tell 
me who they were — ^what my rightful name 
is.” 

Cousin Hannah groaned. “Looks like 
I’ve let the cat out of the bag — don’t it? 
Well, what I’ve got to tell ain’t nigh what 
you think I’ve got to teU,” she asserted 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


23 


doggedly. “You’ll be sorry for askin’.” 

Through Elizabeth’s mind flashed visions 
of a wonderful ancestry; to do her justice 
these dream parents did not in any way dis- 
place the father and mother she really loved 
with all her young heart — ^they were only 
that vision which comes to us all in some 
shape when we feel we are misunderstood — 
different. 

Mary’s step was heard approaching in the 
little corridor. She had undoubtedly been 
disturbed by the sound of their voices, and 
was uneasy for fear Cousin Hannah would 
be teased into making in judicious revela- 
tions. 

“Tell me — ^teU me quick — ” whispered 
Elizabeth, shaking her room-mate’s arm. 
“Tell me before Mary gets here.” 

“Well, I will,” gasped Cousin Hannah. 
“You ought to know it — but I warn you 
it’s not what you’re expectin’!” 












SILVER SPUR RANCH 


25 


Chapter II 

Roy Rides to Silver Spur 

When Mary stepped into the little bed- 
room Cousin Hannah Pratt had already 
spoken. 

‘‘Your pa and ma was movers that come 
here sixteen years ago — ^movers, like the 
folks you seen to-day and made such fun of. 
The name was Mudd.” 

These whispered words sounded in Eliza- 
beth’s ears, and the girl crumpled up on the 
bed sobbing just as Mary opened the door. 
Mrs. Pratt pulled the elder sister into the 
room. 

“ I’ve told Libby — she ought to have been 
told long ago — ^with you marryin’ and goin’ 
away and Ruth not havin’ a bit of faculty 


26 


THE GIRLS OF 


and her bein’ the one to take your place I 
think she was obliged to know it.” 

Mary came across the room with a rush, 
and took slim Elizabeth in loving arms. 

‘^Go away, Cousin Hannah, please,” she 
said. ^^You can sleep with Ruth and I’ll 
stay with Elizabeth.” 

Mrs. Pratt, glad enough to be relieved 
from sight of the misery she had caused, 
hurried away and the two sisters were alone 
together. Mary knew very little of what 
Cousin Hannah had seen fit to reveal, a 
child herself at the time, she had but vague 
remembrances of it, and indeed Elizabeth 
asked no questions — she only needed to be 
comforted, and this Mary did as best she 
could. . 

The next day but one was the wedding 
day. Mr. Bellamy was expected in the 
morning and they would probably have no 
other chance for private talk, but Mary 
urged Elizabeth to go to their mother for 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


27 


comfort when the wedding was over, and 
some time late in the night they both fell 
asleep. 

In the days that followed the wedding, 
when everything was strange, and they were 
settling slowly back into the usual routine 
Elizabeth found no opportunity to speak 
with her mother of that trouble which had 
come now to haunt every waking hour, and 
even pursued her into dreams. 

Mary and her euphoniously named Mr. 
Bellamy had gone on their way to Okla- 
homa, where the bridegroom owned a ranch. 
Cousin Hannah Pratt, having helped with 
the wedding sewing and the packing, had 
gone back to Emerald and her own over- 
flowing boarding-house. Mrs. Spooner, the 
three girls, and old Jonah were left alone, 
face to face with the problem of getting 
along. 

Everything had settled into the usual 
routine at the Silver Spur; Mrs. Spooner, 


28 


THE GIRLS OF 


rather weak from her neuralgia and the 
strain of the wedding, sat on the front porch 
in a big chair which Elizabeth had en- 
deavored to make comfortable with rugs 
and pillows. 

^‘Are you perfectly sure I can’t do any- 
thing else for you, Mother?” she asked 
anxiously. “Mary always waited on you 
so beautifully, while — ^it seems to me I’ve 
never done one little thing for you, when 
you’ve done so much for me!” 

A big tear slipped from the long lashes 
and splashed on Mrs. Spooner’s little hand, 
fluttering among the cushions. In a minute 
the mother-arms had pulled the girl’s head 
down to the mother-breast, the thin fingers 
patting the blond braids and the mother- 
voice crooning comfort into the crumpled 
little ear buried upon the maternal shoulder. 

“ Don’t cry, daughter, Mother loves you 
just the same! Haven’t you been our own 
since you were, O, such a wee baby! It 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


29 


was cruel of Cousin Hannah to tell you, 
but we won’t let it make one bit of differ- 
ence. You’re ours and we are yours. A 
thing like that can’t matter to people who 
love each other as we do.” 

“It — ^it doesn’t matter, Mother,” gasped 
Elizabeth, as she mopped her reddened eyes, 
“if I can just take Mary’s place to you. I 
am going to try, my very level best.” 

“Then you’ll be sure to succeed,” said 
her mother, confidently. “You always suc- 
ceed in everything you undertake — ^hadn’t 
you noticed that, dear? Now, really, I’m 
just as comfortable as hands can make me, 
so you run on down to the corral and help 
Ruth and the Babe with the ponies. You 
ride with them to Emerald, and get the mail 
— ^it’U do you good. And be sure you bring 
me a letter from father.” 

Cheered by her mother’s words, Elizabeth 
gave one more pat and pull to the pillows, 
kissed her, and ran down to the corral, where 


30 


THE GIRLS OF 


the girls were roping the ponies. She and 
Ruth could each rope a little, missing about 
three out of five throws, but the Babe 
usually fiourished so reckless a loop that she 
entangled herself, and had to be helped out; 
in spite of which old Jonah Bean insisted 
that she was the only one who showed any 
signs of learning the art. 

Poor Elizabeth! Her castle of dreams had 
fallen, leaving her wide awake to the fact 
that she was no princess of romance but the 
humble offspring of miserable movers, such 
as had always been the objects of her 
shuddering contempt. Even Cousin Han- 
nah^s heart was touched with pity, and she 
tried with clumsy but hearty kindness to 
make amends for the grief she had caused 
by her disclosure. Nothing had been said 
to Ruth and the Babe, of course — ^they still 
believed her to be their bom sister. How- 
ever, deep down m her heart, Elizabeth 
was walking in the Valley of Humilation 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


31 


amid the dust and ashes of dead hopes; 
and, as most people know, when one enters 
the Valley it is very, very hard to find the 
way out again! 

Mrs. Spooner, watching the girls ride 
down the road, sighed softly. “ Poor child,” 
she murmured pityingly, ^‘I can hardly 
forgive Cousin Hannah. But in the end it 
may prove the best thing. I’m afraid we 
were spoiling her. This may bring out the 
fine nature that I know she possesses.” 

Texas is a land of far horizons; Mrs. 
Spooner could see aU the vast, brown-green 
circling plain until it lost itself in the hazy 
distance. 

Away up the trail that led to her brother’s 
distant ranch, twenty miles further from 
Emerald, she noticed a moving cloud of dust 
which resolved itseK into an oscillating speck 
— ^two — a man on a pony, with a led horse. 

For some reason which she could not have 
explained, Mrs. Spooner felt that the ap- 


32 


THE GIRLS OF 


preaching rider was going to turn in at the 
Silver Spur. There was no pleasant feel- 
ing between herself and Harvey Grannis. 
John Spooner had bought the Silver Spur 
ranch from his brother-in-law when he 
came to this part of Texas, and there had 
been trouble over the transaction, due, Mrs. 
Spooner felt, to Harvey^s disposition to take 
too much authority. He was a bachelor, 
and the rich man of the commimity — except- 
ing the English rancher, McGregor, who did 
not live so far away. He would have liked 
to do a good deal for the family of his only 
sister, but he wanted to do it in his own way, 
asserting that John Spooner couldn’t take 
care of them, and treating them, Elizabeth 
fireily said like paupers. A hard man, with 
his good qualities, yet full of the ^^rule or 
ruin ” spirit, and liable to go to great lengths 
to make his point. 

The approaching rider was now seen to 
be a young fellow, scarcely more than a big 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


33 


boy. He came up the long bare drive, 
stopped at the porch edge and took off his 
hat before he spoke to the woman in the 
rocking-chair. She noted that the pony 
he rode stumbled with weariness, while the 
led horse trotted briskly, unencumbered 
with saddle or rider. She saw, too, that 
while the tired pony bore a brand unfamiliar 
to her, the led one was marked with a G 
in a horse-shoe — ^Harvey Grannis’s brand. 

^‘Good morning, ma'am,” the newcomer 
greeted her. He was a handsome lad of 
perhaps sixteen, but just now in a woeful 
phght, dusty, shaking, haggard with weari- 
ness. ^‘I stopped to ask if you'd like to 
buy a pony at a big bargain.'' 

Mrs. Spooner leaned forward in her chair 
with a little gasp. She was afraid of what 
was coming. 

don't know,” she replied evasively' 
“Which one of them do you want to sell?” 

“0, mine's played out,” the boy returned 


34 


THE GIRLS OF 


never noticing the admission his words con- 
tained. IVe ridden pretty hard, and be- 
sides IVe got to have her to carry me to 
Emerald, so I can take the train there. It’s 
the other one. He’s a mighty fine pony, 
and I’U let him go for enough to buy me a 
ticket back home.” 

“Won’t you come in and rest a minute? 
— ^you look tired,” said Mrs. Spooner, sympa- 
thetically. Somehow she could not bring 
herself to ask if he was from her brother’s 
ranch, though she felt quite sure something 
was wrong about the pony that would go 
so cheap. 

“ I am tired, but I’ve got to go on so as to 
catch the six o’clock train,” the boy smiled 
wanly. “I guess I can stop in for a drink, 
anyhow. 

He dropped the lines, and the two ponies 
stood, cattle country fashion, as though they 
had been tied. 

Mrs. Spooner got up from her chair, for- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


35 


getting, in her excitement any weakness or 
weariness, 

^‘Just come right in and lie down on the 
lounge,” she invited him. “It’s cool and 
shady. I’ll make you a pitcher of lemonade 
in a minute. You’ll gain time by resting.” 

She smiled that reassuring mother-smile 
of hers as she opened the door of the quiet 
living-room. The boy followed in, his spurs 
clinking on the boards, and dropped wearily 
down upon the lounge. When she came 
back he was sitting with his head in his 
hands, but he drank the cool lemonade 
thirstily, finally draining the pitcher. 

“It’s awfully good,” he sighed, his eyes 
speaking his gratitude. “Mother always 
made us lemonade in the summer time at 
home. You — ^you make me think of her, 
someway.” 

As if the resemblance had been too much 
for him, he turned from her with an in- 
articulate sound, and buried his face in the 


36 


THE GIRLS OF 


cushions. Mrs. Spooner sat down beside 
him, and after awhile his groping hand 
caught hers. She spoke to him in whispers, 
though there was nobody in the house to 
hear. 

“I’m afraid you’re in trouble, my poor 
boy,” she said gently. Don’t you want to 
tell me all about it? Maybe I can help 
you.” 

After a time he found strength to face 
her, and teU the poor, pitiful little story. 

His name was Roy Lambert. He was, 
indeed, one of Harvey Grannis’s cowboys, 
and had come west fascinated by the stories 
of frontier life. He had made a contract 
with Grannis to work for him for one year. 
Then came a letter, telling him that his 
mother was desperately ill, and he must 
hurry to her. Grannis refused to advance 
him money or to annul the contract. He 
treated the matter with contempt, pretend- 
ing to believe that the boy was simply 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


37 


homesick, and the letter a ruse to get away. 
At last, frantic at the treatment he received, 
and determined to reach his mother, Roy 
got up before daylight, took his own pony 
and one of Grannis’s which he hoped to 
sell for enough money to get home, and set 
out for Emerald and the railroad. 

I couldn’t walk it, it would take too long 
to get to Emerald that way,” he said, 
“besides, Grannis owes me more than the 
chestnut’s worth, if I sold it for full value. 
I didn’t expect to get only just enough to 
buy my ticket.” 

“Two wrongs won’t make a right, Roy,” 
said Mrs. Spooner, gravely. “Mr. Grannis 
was wrong — ^very wrong, not to advance you 
the money, or let you off your contract. 
But did you stop to think he could have you 
arrested for horse-stealing when you took 
his pony?” 

“No!” blazed Roy, “I didn’t steal it. 
If I had, I don’t care. He’s a hard-hearted 


38 


THE GIRLS OF 


old skinflint. I'd like to wring his neck, 
but even Harvey Grannis can't say I'm a 
horse thief. And I must get home!" 

“Of course you must," soothed Mrs. 
Spooner, weU aware as she looked at his 
flushed face, that Roy himself disapproved 
of what he had done. “I have a little 
money, and I will try and manage it, some- 
way." 

“Would you?" cried the boy. “I'll pay 
you — ^I'U send you a check as soon as I get 
home." 

“Jonah Bean, the only cowboy I keep 
now, can ride on with you to Emerald, and 
bring your pony back. I'll try to sell it 
for enough to repay myself, or I might keep 
it — ^I think we could use one more gentle 
animal." 

“You're awfully good," choked the poor 
feUow. “ If aU the folks in the world were 
like you — such a man as Grannis makes me 
distrust everybody. Do you know him?" 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


39 


^^Yes. I think you^re a little mistaken/’ 
said gentle little Mrs. Spooner. Harvey 
Grannis isn’t really a villian, he’s just a 
hard-headed, high-tempered man, that was 
spoiled by having his own way when he was 
a boy.” 

^‘You don’t know — ” Roy was begin- 
ning, when she interrupted him. 

think I do. Harvey Grannis is my 
only brother. My baby child is named after 
him — ^little Harvie.” 

^^Your brother?” Roy Lambert leaped to 
his feet, looking about with terrified eyes. 

Mrs. Spooner divined his thought at once. 

“ I’m not going to give you up to Harvey,” 
she said firmly. ^‘But I’m going to make 
you let me lend you the money, and leave 
Harvey’s pony here. The laws calls what 
you’ve done horse-steahng, and you can’t 
make laws for yourself. You lie down and 
try to get a little sleep, now, my child. I’ll 
wake you in an hour.” 


40 


THE GIRLS OF 


He thanked her with trembling lips, 
turned on his side, and, secure in his trust 
of her, fell at once asleep. When she saw 
that he really slept, Mrs. Spooner once more 
took her seat on the porch, this time to look 
for her brother, being quite certain that 
Harvey would follow hot-foot on the trail 
of his stolen pony. 

She didn’t have long to wait; in less than 
an hour a buckboard drawn by a pair of 
good sized grade horses turned in at the 
gate; in it sat Harvey Grannis and one of 
his men. They were tracking the lost pony. 
She saw them long before they reached the 
house, recognize it, as it grazed on the bit 
of sunburned pasture which Elizabeth hope- 
fully called a lawn. 

“Hello, Jennie,” her brother called out, 
ignoring any coldness there had been be- 
tween them, as Mrs. Spooner walked rapidly 
out to meet him. Grannis was a loud- 
spoken individual, and she did not care to 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


41 


have the boy awakened. “I’m after the 
thief that stole this pony of mine. Is he on 
your place?” 

“He’s asleep in the house,” said Mrs. 
Spooner, quietly, though her voice was shak- 
ing a little. “He’s very tired, and he’s go- 
ing to ride to Emerald tonight. I don’t 
want him disturbed.” 

“You bet he’s going to ride to Emerald!” 
blustered the ranchman. “I’ll have him 
in jail there before supper-time! Come on, 
Tom, we’ll go in and wake the young gentle- 
man. Fetch your rope. Keep your gun 
handy. You never know what a young, 
dime-novel-crazy idiot like that will do.” 

He sprang from the buckboard, and both 
men were starting for the house when Mrs. 
Spooner barred their way. 

“You can’t go in there, Harvey,” she 
told him. And now she was trembling so 
that Tom, of the rope and gun, was sorry 
for her, and heartily sick of his errand. No 


42 


THE GIRLS OF 


doubt Harvey Grannis was too, which 
merely made him talk louder and more 
harshly. 

^‘WeU, I’d like to know why I can’t?” 
he demurred, pretending to laugh at her a 
bit. ‘‘Who’s going to stop me? Now see 
here, Jennie, you always were a simple- 
hearted, soft-natured little goose. Anybody 
can bamboozle you. Look at the way 
John Spooner — ” 

“We won’t go into that,” warned Mrs. 
Spooner, with a flash in her eyes that made 
Grannis’s cowboy chuckle inwardly. 

“What’s your reason for defending this 
boy?” Grannis argued. “He’s a thief.” 

“I’m not defending Roy Lambert alone,” 
said Mrs. Spooner. “I’m defending my 
brother — a brother I used to be very fond 
of — ^from doing a thing he’ll be sorry for 
all the days of his life. ” 

Grannis flushed redly through the deep 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


43 


tan of his sunburned skin, while Tom, 
standing by and listening, enjoyed himself 
thoroughly over his employer's discom- 
fiture. 

These boys come west crazy for ranch 
life," Grannis said dogmatically. “They 
soon get sick of honest work, and invent any 
kind of story to get away. This boy's 
lying to you, and he's stolen a pony from 
me. Move out of the way, Jennie, and let 
me handle him." 

The men had been standing with their 
backs to the trail. Mrs. Spooner noted a 
little figure on a gaunt pony whose gaits 
were familiar to her approaching from the 
direction of Emerald. Now small Harvey 
rose in her stirrups and shouted, waving an 
envelope above her head. Mrs. Spooner 
was sorry she had not got rid of her brother 
before the girls returned. Grannis looked 
over his shoulder, and feeling unwilling 


44 


THE GIRLS OF 


that his beloved namesake should see him 
doing anything unkind rushed the matter 
hastily. 

“Get out of the way, Jennie,” he re- 
peated. “Come on, Tom.” 

A figure appeared in the ranch-house 
door, Roy Lambert, flushed and trembling 
with the fever that Mrs. Spooner had been 
fearing for him. He carried his belt in his 
hand, and was fumbling at the holster to 
get his pistol. 

“I won’t go back alive,” he said. 

“Rope him, Tom,” prompted Grannis in 
a low tone. “I don’t want to shoot the 
crazy kid. ” 

“Uncle Harvey — Uncle Harvey,” came 
the Babe’s thin, sweet pipe, “I’m glad 
you’re here, ^cause I’ve got a telegram for 
somebody out at your ranch. Jonah was 
to take it on but now he won’t have to.’ ” 

The child’s eyes saw nothing amiss. The 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


45 


three men were warily watching each other, 
Roy tugging desperately at the holster to 
get his weapon which had caught, and Tom 
half sullenly loosening and coiling his rope. 

“It’s for Mr. Roy Lambert,” sang out 
the little girl, triumphant in her ability to 
read even bad handwriting. 












SILVER SPUR RANCH 


47 


Chapter III 

A Package and a Leather-Brown Phaeton 

The men stood rigid at little Harvey’s 
announcement. Mrs. Spooner took the en- 
velope from the child’s hands, opened it 
and read aloud: 

^‘Mother died last night. Funeral over 
before you can get here. Sister.” 

The boy on the steps wheeled and ran 
into the house. Grannis turned unwill- 
ingly. 

^^Well — ^that looks genuine,” he muttered 
with the obstinacy of a high-tempered man. 

won’t prosecute him for lifting my 
pony — ^But I want you to understand that 
it’s on your account Jennie. I teU you to 
turn him out. He’s a bad lot. If ever he 
sets foot on the Circle G he’ll have me to 


48 


THE GIRLS OF 


settle with. If you insist on having him 
around your place 111 — ^111 — ” His eye 
fell on Harvie. ^‘Take the halter there, 
Tom and tie Baldy on behind. He leads 
aU right. 

‘^Aren’t you going to pay him the money 
you owe him,” Mrs Spooner asked as she 
saw the men preparing to depart. 

Grannis would have paid the money if 
it had not been for the presence of Tom. 
He could not let one of his cowboys see a 
loosening of discipline. 

^^No, I’ll not, he said bluntly and whip- 
ped his team around into the drive. ^^He 
can’t collect a cent off me, and I’m done 
making concessions on your account. ” 

^ ‘Where are the girls?” Mrs. Spooner 
asked as she and the Babe stood watching 
the Circle G rig depart. 

“They’re coming,” answered the Babe. 
“I rode ahead ’cause they were carrying so 
many things and I could go faster. The 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


49 


man at the telegraph office paid us for bring- 
ing the message out. Are you going to 
keep Roy Lambert here, like Uncle Harvey 
said you ought not, mother? ” 

Mrs. Spooner nodded as she went back 
into the living-room, leaving little Harvie 
to start the fire in the stove. There she 
did her best to comfort the poor fellow, 
facing his first big sorrow. 

I won’t go home now — ^there’s no use,” 
he declared, when he could speak. “But 
I’ll never go back to Grannis! If you let 
me I’ll stay here and work for you. And 
I’d do my best to do for you what a son 
would. Outside of heaven, I’ve got no 
mother now.” And once more his grief 
overwhelmed him. 

I’ll be happy to treat a good boy like 
you as a son,” said Mrs. Spooner. “My 
husband is away with the troops, and 
we’ve had a pretty hard time to get along 
without him. I’m sure my girls will be 


50 


THE GIRLS OF 


glad to take you into our household as a 
brother. Maybe providence sent you to 
us, to-day. Maybe we need you as much 
as you need us. ” 

With the relaxing of the terrible strain, 
and the exhaustion of his grief, the boy 
seemed to become really ill. She sat beside 
him, trying to soothe him with tenderly 
wise words, and bathing his hot forehead 
in cool water till at last he slept, and she 
stole softly out to warn old Jonah, who came 
stumping in with a basket of cobs for the 
kitchen fire. 

Make as little noise as you can, Jonah, ” 
she whispered. ^‘We have a boy in the 
house asleep — one of Harvey’s cowboys — ■ 
I’m afraid he has fever. ” 

O Lord!” groaned Jonah, in a doleful 
whisper. ^‘Trouble comes double — ^never 
knowed it to fail yit! ’T ain’t ’nough that 
you ain’t right peart, and the boss gone, and 
me with the rheumatiz a-ticklin’ my right 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


51 


foot ag’in, but we got to havea no-^count 
cowboy, sweater an’ shirk, of course, laid 
up on us. Poor gals, I feel for ’em! — an’ 
you’ve got nothin’ but gals. Ef you’d ’a’ 
had a right smart mess o’ boys, now — 
They’ll have all the work to do — like enough 
have to ride and rope and brand, ’fore they 
are done, besides nussin’ this here boy, and 
me’n you throwed in for good measure. 
Whyn’t Grannis tend to his own sick cow- 
boys? Plenty o’ folks at his ranch.” 

“He’s not Harvey’s cowboy any longer, 
Jonah — ^he’s ours, if we need him — and 
according to that, we do. Now don’t say 
a word, just listen to me — ” as the old man 
opened his mouth to remonstrate very 
forcibly on the utter folly of taking an un- 
known person into her home. Then, speak- 
ing in subdued tones, she told him the story 
of the boy from the Grannis ranch. 

At the end old Jonah Bean, being tender- 
hearted if cantankerous, took out his ban- 


52 THE GIRLS OF 

danna and blew his nose with hushed 
vigor. 

I wam’t in the presence of a lady 
what’s his sister, Mis’ Spooner,” he said 
with elabrate politeness, “I’d up an’ say — 
Dad rat Harvey Grannis’s hide! Manners 
an’ behavior is all prevents me from usin’ 
them same cuss-words. ” 

“ Thank you for not saying them, Jonah, ” 
approved Mrs. Spooner, gravely, but with 
twinkling eyes. “Now I’ll go out and meet 
the girls — ^I hear them coming, and they’ll 
be sure to wake him with their noise, if 
I don’t warn them. ” 

The two girls were riding up the path, 
and both shouted: 

“A letter from Cuba Libre!” 

“A/ai letter — and we want to see what’s 
in it so bad!” 

Of course the precious letter was immedi- 
ately read — ^that came before anything 
else; the girls, dismounting, the Babe run- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


53 


ning out, dish-towel in hand, with Jonah 
hobbling in the rear, and all grouping around 
Mrs. Spooner, to hear the news from Cuba. 

It was a bravely cheerful letter, contain- 
ing the best of all news; their father was 
well, the health of the army was good, there 
was no prospect of a battle. Then followed 
long messages to each member of the fam- 
ily, loving and jolly; advice to Jonah Bean 
about the ranch, winding up with impress- 
ive charges to everybody to be ^^sure and 
take good care of mother!’^ 

Three cheers for Cuba Libre — she’s tak- 
ing good care of our boys!” exulted Eliza- 
beth, and Ruth declared fervently: ^‘It’s 
such good news that it makes me right 
hungry! Let’s make muffins for supper 
Elizabeth, and celebrate. ” 

‘‘Maybe there won’t ever be a real truly 
sure-enough battle like Ivanhoe and King 
Richard Sour-de-lion and Jonah Bean used 


54 THE GIRLS OF 

to fight/’ suggested the Babe, hopefully, 
and Jonah added, sagely: 

don’t know nothin’ ’bout them two 
folks you named over, honey, but I lay you 
the war o’ the sixties was some punkin’s! 
I misdoubt this here Cuban scrimmage is 
jest a play war. ” 

Truly, I hope so, Jonah,” said Mrs. 
Spooner. ‘^Now listen, children, I have 
some more news for you. We can’t have 
father with us, but I believe I have found 
a ^real, truly sure-enough’ brother — a 
regular big brother, like other girls have.” 

“O, Mother,” put in the Babe, excitedly, 
‘‘I didn’t know that! Is he named after 
us, if he’s going to be our own brother?” 

‘‘No, his name is Roy Lambert — ^but 
we don’t care what it is, ” she added, hastily, 
remembering how poor Elizabeth had loved 
fine-sounding names, “if he is only a good 
boy, and I think he is. ” 

Then she told them the story of poor Roy. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


55 


I do think Uncle Harvey is the meanest 
old — ” began Ruth, indignantly, but her 
mother’s hand was laid lightly upon her 
lips, stopping further outburst. 

^‘That’s enough, daughter,” she said, 
quietly, “they both did wrong, and I think 
they’re both sorry. It is all over now, and 
we must try and think as kindly of Uncle 
Harvey and be as good to poor Roy as 
ever we can.” 

“Yes, and I’ll lend him my own pony, if 
his is too bad off for him to ride, ” added the 
Babe generously — ^her own Rosinante being 
the joke of the ranch. “Uncle Harvey 
didn’t mean to be bad, Ruth — ^hc looked just 
as sorry when you read the telegram — 
didn’t he, Mother? ” 

“ I think he is sorry, ” agreed her mother, 
who wished her children to think as well of 
their uncle as possible, but Jonah, with a 
scornful snort, ejaculated: Sorry — ^Harvey 
Grannis? O, Lord, that is a joke!” And 


56 


THE GIRLS OF 


muttering his opinion of Harvey Grannis 
pretty audibly, went stumping away, to his 
work. 

Elizabeth said nothing, only she slipped 
her hand in that of her foster-mother and 
whispered: ^‘1 think the Lord sent him to 
you. Mother, because he was in trouble and 
needed you.^^ 

^‘Well, I hope hell be a nice boy, and I 
hope he won’t be sick. Ill go in and make 
up the muffin batter, Elizabeth, while you 
set the table. I bet he didn’t get any muffins 
at Uncle Harvey’s ranch,” said Ruth, who 
believed in ministering to the sick by giving 
them good things to eat. 

They had a very good supper, and the 
muffins were really gems, but Roy could not 
touch the dainty tray, saying that it looked 
awfully good, but he was too tired to eat — 
he’d be all right in the morning. 

But next morning he was in a raging de- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


57 


lirium, and Jonah Bean had to ride to Emer- 
ald and fetch the doctor, who said the boy 
was in for a pretty bad spell of fever. 

For two weeks the Spooner household 
nursed him, then came a day of rejoicing 
when the patient was able to move shakily 
about, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but cheer- 
fully assuring them he felt dandy! Re- 
covery was swift after that, and it was not 
long before the boy from the Circle G, the 
outcast horse-thief, was a valued and almost 
indispensable member of the Silver Spur 
household. 

I don’t see how we ever got along with- 
out him,” declared Ruth, positively, as she 
poked the clothes that were beginning to 
bubble in the big wash-kettle out in the 
back yard. 

^‘Particularly now that Jonah’s laid up 
with the rheumatism,” agreed Elizabeth, 
rubbing the white clothes on the wash-board 


58 


THE GIRLS OF 


with rythmitic strokes that, somehow, 
seemed to take a lot of the drudgery away 
from the task. 

Ruth and Elizabeth were doing the week’s 
washing; it wasn’t a very hard thing to do, 
when one went about it with the right spirit 
— ^the determination to try, with cheerful 
energy, to get the clothes as clean as pos- 
sible in as little time as possible: 

‘^To sweep a room as for God’s cause 
Makes that and the action fine.” 

The Spooner girls had never heard these 
words of the old poet, but they practiced 
the spirit of them a good deal in their work. 

It was astonishing how much Roy had 
helped to lighten the work for them, as well 
as for old Jonah Bean, who declared him 
to be nothing less than a God-send. For 
instance, he had filled the kettles and tubs 
with water, and fetched a big basket of 
cobs to make a fire under the wash-kettle, 
all before he had gone to Emerald on what 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 59 

he declared to be a very particular errand 
of his own. 

wonder what it is/’ mused Ruth, 
curiously, “last week he went — said he had 
something very particular to do, you remem- 
ber, and he came back late. He never 
brought anything back, that I could see.” 

“My private opinion is,” said Elizabeth, 
confidentially, “that he is fixing up some 
sort of a surprise for mother’s birthday. 
He heard us say we were looking for a pack- 
age from father, and that we hoped it 
would get here in time for her birthday. 
I noticed it was right after that he went to 
town on business of his own. ” 

“It would be just like him — ^he’s always 
trying to think up something to do for us. 
Say, Elizabeth, I certainly appreciate this 
shelter he built for us, don’t you?” 

“ I don’t see how we ever got along without 
it; he’s certainly a handy boy,” declared 
Elizabeth, gratefully. 


60 


THE GIRLS OF 


Heretofore the girls had washed with the 
glaring sun beating down upon their un- 
protected heads, but now Roy had built a 
shelter for the tubs. Timber was scarce, 
but he had managed to find enough for the 
posts and cross-pieces, and there were plenty 
of tin shingles left from re-shingling the 
house, so that he had managed to make a 
very neat job of it, and one that added greatly 
to their comfort. 

^^Have you all seen the Babe anywhere? ” 
asked Mrs. Spooner, coming out of the 
kitchen. ^‘1 want her to hunt some eggs 
for me; I think I’ll make some tea-cakes 
for supper.” 

She’s down at Jonah’s shacks — ^I’ll call 
her,” offered Elizabeth, but Mrs. Spooner 
demurred, saying she would rather go her- 
self. 

haven’t enquired about Jonah’s foot, 
today, and he may think I’m neglecting 
him,” said the gentle mistress of the ranch, 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


61 


who never was known to neglect a living 
thing upon it, and was particularly solicit- 
ous about the welfare of her ancient cow- 
boy. 

Jonah Bean was a veteran of the sixties, 
much given to narrating tales of his own 
marvelous exploits; he was also a bachelor, 
who declared himself independent of the 
whole female sex, inasmuch as he could, if 
necessary, sew, cook, and ^‘do for himseK’' 
generally. Though inclined to be a grum- 
bler, he was really devoted to all the Spooner 
family, particularly little Harvie, whom he 
had been the first to nickname “the Babe, 
and he always found her an eager listener 
to the tales of adventure he delighted in 
telling. 

Mrs. Spooner found him sitting in the 
doorway of his shack, which was near the 
corral, and had originally been intended for 
a bunk-house, when John Spooner’s hand 
was on the helm, and Silver Spur promised 


62 


THE GIRLS OF 


to be a paying ranch. He was patching a 
pair of overalls and talking animatedly to 
the Babe, who was, as usual, a rapt listener. 

*'So Ginerl Jackson sez, sez^e: ^Send me 
the pick o’ your men from each company.’ 
And, when he looks us over, he p’ints at 
me. ‘What’s that runty, tallow-faced little 
chap named? And what’s he good for?’ he 
asts the cap’n o’ my company. And the 
cap’n ups and ’lows: ‘His name’s Jonah 
Bean, Giner’l, and he’s a powerful hand at 

“0, Jonah!” interrupted the Babe, sor- 
rowfully, “Ivanhoe never ran — ^nor King 
Richard Sour-de-lion either. Nobody but 
caitiffs and paynims and folks like that ought 
ever to run.” 

“WTiy you see, honey,” explained old 
Jonah patiently, “what the cap’n meant 
was that I was like the Irishman’s pig — 
mighty little but mighty lively’, and could 
git over ground faster’n common. ” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


63 


said the Babe in a relieved tone, 

I’m glad you weren’t a paynim or a caitiff, 
Jonah. ” 

^^No,” hastily denied Jonah, “I wam’t — 
I ain’t no kin to none o’ them sort of folks; 
I’m a Tennesseean, me’n all my forefathers 
before me. Well, the Giner’l calls me up, 
and sez, sez’e: Trivate Bean, your country 
is dependin’ on you to do some mighty tall 
runnin’ to-day. Kin I depend on you to 
run so fast the Yankees can’t ketch you?’ 

“I s’luted, and sez I’d do my levelest. 
Then, as I was a-sayin’ he gimme the papers 
and my orders. ’Twas a long way from the 
ferry, so’s to save time I swum the Jeemg 
rive; — ^high water, and twenty-five mih 
acrost, more or less, I disremember rightly. 
And then, man, sir! I everlastin’ burnt thtj 
wind! Minie-balls was a-rainin’ like hail, 
and I jest natchully had to kick the bomb- 
shells out’n my way. Right through the 
enemy’s lines till I fetched up at Giner’l 


64 


THE GIRLS OF 


Lee’s headquarters, s’luted and turned them 
papers over to him dry as powder — for I’d 
swum with ’em under my hat.” 

“King Richard would ’a’ made you a 
knight!” breathed the Babe, in ecstatic 
admiration. 

“They didn’t have none o’ them in our 
army, honey, or they mighter. I shore’d 
’a’ been promoted to sergeant anyhow, if 
Giner’l Jackson hadn’t ’a’ been killed before 
he could send in my recommend. The Babe 
murmured her regret over the General’s 
untimely taking off. 

“Momin’, ma’am,” Jonah greeted Mrs. 
Spooner, who just then came up. “Me’n 
the Babe, here, was jest a-talkin’ over old 
times. She was a-tellin’ me the news from 
Cuby and I was mentionin’ of a few things 
happened back yander in the sixties. I says 
this here Cubian war ain’t nothin’ ’tall but 
jest chillun’s play-war.” 

“I hope and pray so, Jonah,” said Mrs. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 65 

Spooner, her voice trembling a little. But 

— ^war is war, I’m afraid. ” 

And to this, Jonah, scoffer though he was, 
could only agree. War, even a play war, 
meant some danger. 

It was after dark when Roy returned from 
Emerald, and — as he had done the last time, 
instead of riding up the front way and 
whistling a signal from the road, he came in 
at the back, surprising the whole family, 
who were all gathered in the kitchen. 

^‘ Howdy-do, folks ! Gee, that fried chicken 
smells good, Ruth! Mrs. Pratt sent you a 
quarter of mutton. Mother Spooner — 
they had just killed a sheep. I hung it up 
on the peg outside the back door to keep 
sweet. ” 

He smiled affectionately on the Babe, who 
was eyeing with much curiosity a big pack- 
age under his arm. “And this, I reckon, 
must be that birthday bundle from Cuba; 
I found it at the express office. ” 


66 


THE GIRLS OF 


There was a shout of joy from the Babe, 
and a satisfied exclamation from her sis- 
ters, who had about given up hope of the 
package’s arriving on time, the mails from 
Cuba being very uncertain. 

‘‘Day after to-morrow is mother’s birth- 
day — just in the nick of time,” they ex- 
ulted. “Don’t you dare take one little, 
little peep till then. Lock it up in your 
bureau-drawer, Ruth, so she won’t have 
temptation before her eyes, ” laughed Eliza- 
beth, and Ruth bore off the package, in 
spite of the Babe’s protest that maybe 
father had sent a little present to Jonah — 
and he wouldn’t like to wait! 

“ Maybe there’s something in it or a little 
girl or so,” laughed her mother, “but I 
think we can wait. For I’ll be forty years 
old, and it needs pleasant things to make a 
fortieth birthday happy, I can tell you.” 

At this the Babe hugged herself in delight, 
to think there was still another pleasant 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


67 


thing in store for her mother. For to- 
morrow Elizabeth and Ruth had planned to 
make a wonderful cake, iced white like a 
real Christmas cake, which, on the birth- 
day they intended to light with forty tiny 
pink candles, already bought and hidden 
away in Elizabeth’s trunk. To console 
herself, she fell to dreaming over the lovely 
things shut up in the brown paper package 
— ^to think of anything real hard was nearly 
as good as seeing it. 

^^Mrs. Pratt’s Maudie got back from her 
grandmother’s last night,” said Roy, as 
they all sat at supper — except Jonah, who, 
because of his foot, had had his supper 
carried to him by the Babe. 

‘^They’re planning for a big celebration 
and a Harvest Home festival in Emerald 
next week, and she wants the girls to go 
over and spend a few days. Mrs. Pratt 
particularly said both, if you can spare 
them. ” 


68 


THE GIRLS OF 


“I wonder what Maudie’s grandmother 
gave her this time/^ said Ruth, rather wist- 
fully. “She always has so many pretty 
things when she comes back from a visit 
out there. It must be lovely to have a 
grandmother who is well-off.” She sighed 
a little, thinking of the many-times 
laundered cotton frocks that served Eliza- 
beth and herself for all dress-up occasions. 
Maudie, no doubt, would have a challis, or 
maybe even a summer silk. 

Elizabeth said nothing, but at the mention 
of a well-to-do grandmother she felt a blush 
of shame creeping over her face. It was 
such a little while ago that she had indulged 
in beautiful dreams of unknown and wealthy 
relations; stately grandmothers with high- 
piled white hair, gold lorgnettes and rust- 
ling silks; and haughtily handsome grand- 
fathers of ancient lineage and great wealth, 
who would see that she was lavishly sup- 
plied with means to buy the beautiful clothes 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


69 


necessary for a girl who would move in the 
highest circles of society. Dreams that 
ended in such a sordid awakening — O, poor 
Ehzabeth! 

Mrs. Spooner’s mother eyes saw what the 
girl tried so hard to conceal, and she said 
with quiet emphasis: “I wouldn’t give 
any one of my three girls with their cotton 
frocks, for a dozen Maudies with a dozen 
silks apiece!” 

It was next morning that Roy explained 
his mysterious trips to town. 

^‘You know your mother can’t walk 
much, ” he said, ‘‘and she can’t ride a pony, 
like we do. So when I saw a second-hand 
phaeton for sale I made up my mind to buy 
it for her birthday gift. Shasta works fine 
in harness, so I rode her to town, hooked her 
up to the old phaeton, and, last week, 
brought it home and hid it out in the corral 
shed, where I’ve been putting in odd min- 
utes painting it, while Jonah’s cutting down 


70 


THE GIRLS OF 


the harness to fit Shasta. It’s just shreds 
and patches now, and a mile too big. The 
phaeton’s pretty rickety as to looks, so I 
went yesterday and got some cloth and 
fringe for the top, and you girls must help 
me fix up the curtains so’s I’ll get it done in 
time for her to take a drive on her birthday. ” 
“I do think you are a wonder, Roy,” 
admired Elizabeth, with sparkling eyes. 
The very thing she needed most — ^and had 
no idea she’d get till father comes home. ” 
“A package from Cuba, and a cake and 
a phanlomV* exulted the Babe, who was 
present. “That’s a cossal thing, Roy.” 

“ She means colossal, ” explained Eliza- 
beth, as Roy turned a bewildered look on 
her. And Ruth added: She gets them out 
of books, those long words that she can’t 
pronounce. I wish Mother could send her 
to school — she reads too much. ” 

“People can’t read too much Ruth,” 
said the Babe severely. “ Some time, when 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


71 


I go to school I’m going to learn to read 
well enough to read all the books in the 
round world. Jonah says there ain’t 
nothin’ like eddication!^^ 

^^Sure — agree with Jonah,” laughed 
Roy. “Sorry I can’t have a fine ‘eddica- 
tion,’ I’d like it the best sort. But come on 
and let’s have a look at the phantom. ” 

It was a pretty rickety phaeton — as to 
cover and cushions; Roy had already made 
it spruce with a good many coats of leather- 
brown paint. He showed the girls the 
fringe and the lining he had bought to reno- 
vate the canopy-top. 

“We’ll cover the cushions right away,” 
said Ruth, viewing the dilapidated affairs 
that had — ^in the distant past, been spick and 
spandy leather cushions. 

“There, now — ^I knew I’d never recollect 
everything!” said Roy, ruefully. “I just 
got enough brown stuff to line the top — I 
clean forgot the cushions. ” 


72 


THE GIRLS OF 


Elizabeth, as usual, solved the difficulty. 

’ ‘Mother has an old brown broadcloth 
skirt she doesn^t wear. It’U make perfect 
cushion-covers, just the right shade. I’ll 
take the measures now and stitch up the 
covers in no time. ” 

“Elizabeth always did have a head on 
her shoulders!” admired Ruth. “I’m will- 
ing enough, but I never could do anything 
but just cook. Anyway, I’ll make the birth- 
day cake. ” 

“And I’ll beat the eggs — ^I can beat eggs 
so nice and soap-suddy, ” boasted the Babe. 

“That’ll be a great help. We don’t 
want any hit-or-miss cake. Everything’s 
got to be properly weighed and measured 
and beaten. Now let’s go see how Jonah’s 
coming on with the harness. ” 

Jonah, with the harness in a big cotton- 
basket which could be hidden from sight by 
throwing a horse-blanket over it if Mrs. 
Spooner happened along, was seated in- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


73 


doors, busily snipping and stitching and 
patching away at the rusty-looking leather. 

^‘Now don't you-aU come a-frustratin' 
me till I git through with my job, '' fumed 
the old man, rather crossly, ’course, you’ll 
’low ’tain’t much to look at- — ^which I ain’t 
a-denyin’ — but jest wait till me’n the boy 
gits done — ^then jedge by ree-sults.” 

Roy sighed a little bit wistfully. ‘‘I did 
want to get something better, but my money 
barely held out for this. ” 

^‘Something better?” scolded the girls, 
^^who wants anything better?” 

A lovely, low-hung, leather-brown phae- 
ton,” added Elizabeth, aUiteratively, ” is 
a thing of beauty. Add brown cushions, 
brown harness and a perfectly-matching 
brown pony and it’ll be too stylish for any- 
thing. ” 

That’s sure ‘seeing things’, Elizabeth,” 
laughed Roy. Glad you believe in us. 
I’ll work at the phaeton and try to have it 


74 


THE GIRLS OF 


looking as much as possible like your fancy 
picture by to-morrow. Jonah’U boss the 
harness job, and you girls can transform the 
cushions. ” 

There were great preparations going on 
that day, right under Mrs. Spooner’s un- 
suspecting eyes. The girls had ironed the 
clothes the day before, insisting that they 
required mending immediately, much to 
their mother’s surprise, for they didn’t 
usually bother about the mending. 

There was indeed plenty of it to do, and, 
since Mr. Spooner’s absence, very little 
money to buy new clothes, so that the best 
the patient mother could do was to mend and 
dam and patch, till, like the Cotter’s wife, 
she ‘‘made old clothes look almost as well 
as new. ” 

She sat on the front porch and darned and 
mended busily, while in the kitchen Ruth 
and the Babe — ^who did beat the whites 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


75 


into most wonderful soap-suds, made a mar- 
velous silver-cake, which they iced thick 
and white — a regular Christmas-cake. And 
Elizabeth ripped up the old brown skirt, 
sponged and pressed the cloth, and made the 
cushions as neatly as any upholsterer could 
have done. Roy and Jonah Bean, at the 
same time, were transforming the harness 
and phaeton, to have it all done by the next 
morning. Roy, having his own and Jonah^s 
work to do, had to snatch odd moments to 
rub down the paint and re-cover the ancient 
top. 

Mrs. Spooner was allowed to open her 
package from Cuba on her birhhday morn- 
ing, with the three girls crowding round to 
see — ^the Babe quivering with eager antici- 
pation. 

Mrs. Spooner unwrapped from its folds 
of tissue-paper the gift they aU knew to be 
hers — a shawl or scarf of black, heavily- 


76 


THE GIRLS OF 


woven silk, embroidered in most wonderfully 
natural pansies; a regular Cuban man- 
tilla, exquisitely made. 

The girls were so delighted, draping their 
mother in its soft folds, and admiring the 
effect, that they quite forgot a smaller pack- 
age which was still unopened — all but the 
Babe, who continued to gaze upon it with 
fascinated eyes. 

^‘0, Mother, please open the little bun- 
dle, she begged at last. ^^I’m — ^I’m just 
on ten-pins to see what’s in it!” 

“Now where’d she get that word? What 
on earth does it mean? ” laughed Ruth, who 
was often puzzled over her little sister’s ex- 
pressions. 

“Tenterhooks,” translated Elizabeth. 
“Only she got ‘hooks’ mixed up with pins 
and needles. Do open it, mother, and re- 
lieve the ‘ten-pins’!” 

“I’ll let the Babe open it herself. I’m 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


77 


sure she can pick out her own present,” 
smiled the mother, as she gave the smaller 
package to the child. 

With awed dehght the Babe removed the 
tissue-paper slowly, as befitting a solenm 
rite: three tantalizing little bundles were 
disclosed, tightly wrapped. She opened the 
first 5 it contained a painted Spanish fan. 

^^This must be for Efizabeth,” concluded 
the Babe, with decision, and handed over 
the Ian to Elizabeth, who waved it with lan- 
guid grace, imagining herself to be a Spanish 
Senorita. 

The next parcel held a pretty handker- 
chief, with a wide border of Mexican drawn- 
work j this the Babe promptly turned over 
to Ruth. donT want that — can bor- 
row mother’s, ” she said, with fine assurance. 

but I do! I never had a real pretty 
handkerchief in my life. I don’t believe 


78 


THE GIRLS OF 


even Maudie Pratt has one as pretty as 
this, exclaimed Ruth, happily. 

On this httle ranch where things were 
hard to get at best, the thrifty mother al- 
ways cut up the flour sacks into neat squares, 
which she hemmed on the machine; these 
when washed and ironed were piled neatly 
in each girPs little handkerchief-box', for 
every-day use. For Sundays and extra 
occasions there was a little square of muslin, 
hemstiched and bordered with narrow lace. 
No Spooner ever dreamed of possessing a 
better handkerchief. N o wonder that Ruth 
exulted over her gift. 

The third was a little white box. When 
the Babe removed the lid she hugged the 
box to her bosom and pranced joyously 
about the room. 

‘‘My beads, my beads!” she crowed, 
ecstatically. “ My own dear, beautiful pink 
necklace!” she held out a string of coral 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


79 


before her family’s admiring eyes. Put it 
on for me, Elizabeth, so I can run show it 
to Roy and Jonah,” she begged. “0, 
mother — ” with a sudden look of conster- 
nation, suppose I didn’t guess right?” 

^^You guessed exactly right,” reassured 
her mother, ^^but Elizabeth, child, what are 
you pinning my hat on for? ” 

“Just walk out in front and behold an- 
other birthday gift, ” said Elizabeth, busily 
pinning on the hat. “There, now, you’re 
all ready — ^hat, shawl and everything. ” 
Wondering, her mother obeyed, and be- 
held drawn up at the door a spick and 
spandy looking little low phaeton, painted a 
beautiful leather brown; its fringed canopy- 
top fresh and neat, its cushions upholstered 
in handsome brown broadcloth, and har- 
nessed to a perfectly-matching brown pony, 
in neatly fitting brown harness, already for 
taking a drive. 


80 


THE GIRLS OF 


“0, my dears!” there was consternation 
in Mrs. Spooner’s voice. ^‘Did you go and 
buy a phaeton! How in the world did you 
manage? You know we simply must not 
go in debt. ” 

A chorus of protest reassured her. The 
gift was none of theirs — ^they had not gone 
in debt. Roy had bought it for her with 
his own money. 

^For just nothing at all, Mother Spoon- 
er,” he hastened to assure her. “It was 
just junk. We, Jonah, the girls and I, 
fixed it up for you, so it’s really a family 
gift. And you’ll find Shasta gentle as a 
kitten. Now you and the Babe get in, and 
and Jonah and I’ll escort you in style — ^we 
are going to take you over the ranch and 
come back in time for the birthday dinner 
Ruth and Elizabeth are going to fix up. ” 

As the procession clattered down the 
driveway and out into the trail along the 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


81 


prairie, the Babe nestled close to her mother 
and sighed blissfully — she had in mind 
another surprise that was to help make the 
fortieth birthday a pleasant one. A big, 
Christmassy cake, iced white as snow and 
covered with forty tiny pink candles. 



SILVER SPUR RANCH 


83 


Chapter IV 
A Jewel of Great Price 

Every single member of the Spooner fam- 
ily with the exception of Jonah Bean, who 
declared he didn’t have no time to waste 
a-pleasurin,’ were going to Emerald, to 
spend the day with Cousin Hannah Pratt 
and take part in the Harvest Home festi- 
val. 

Cousin Hannah, having heard of the new 
phaeton, declared that now Mrs. Spooner 
didn’t have an earthly thing to prevent her 
coming to town, and she had sent such ur- 
gent entreaties by Roy, that at last the mis- 
tress of the ranch was prevailed upon to 
accept the invitation. 

^*But I can only spend the day,” she de- 
clared, *‘we can’t all be spared at once; 


84 


THE GIRLS OF 


Jonah is just able to be about, we musn’t 
leave him too much work to do. The Babe 
and I will come back in the afternoon, and 
the girls can stay — and you, Roy?” 

There was a little note of interrogation in 
her voice as she laid her hand affectionately 
upon the boy^s shoulder. She was almost 
sure that he wouldn’t want to go to a party 
that his grief was too recent. 

Roy patted her hand, smiling a little sadly 
as he shook his head. “ I don’t feel equal to 
parties yet,” he said. 

^‘And as to both Ruth and me staying, 
that’s out of the question,” decided Eliza- 
beth. There’ll be a hundred and one 
things to do, and you’ll try to do them every 
one. Ruth’s going to stay all night because 
it’s her turn — ^Mary and I went last year. 
So thaVs settled, mother. ” 

After some argument, Ruth — ^who really 
did want to stay very much, yielded. If 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 85 

Elizabeth wouldn’t stay, why she would, 
and be glad to. 

“And you may carry my fan,” said 
Elizabeth generously, “nobody — ^not even 
Maudie, will have such a beautiful one. And 
you shall wear my pink girdle, too, it’s 
newer than your sash. ” 

The Babe sighed. She was having a men- 
tal struggle as to whether she could practise 
self-denial enough to lend her sister the 
string of coral beads that were the delight 
of her heart. The situation finally resulted 
in a compromise. 

“And ril lend you my beads — after I’ve 
wore ’em all day. But you musn’t forget 
to feel every now and then for the catch, to 
see if it’s fastened, ” she warned. 

“Thank you. Babe, I will,” laughed 
Ruth, “and I’ll take good care of your fan, 
too, Elizabeth. Dear me, won’t I be fine! 
Pink coral, and pink girdle, a Spanish fan 
and my drawn-work handkerchief!” 


86 


THE GIRLS OF 


“ I don’t approve of girls borrowing 
things from each other, ” said Mrs. Spooner, 
doubtfully. I’ve known serious trouble to 
result from such practices. There’s always 
danger of losing or injuring the things, you 
know. But, if you sisters want to lend, I 
won’t ob j ect. Only be very careful, because 
you couldn’t replace them if they were lost. ” 

^^I’ll be careful as care, mother — don’t 
you worry. ” And Ruth ran happily away, 
to pack her suit-case and get together her 
simple finery. 

There were various attractions to be at 
the celebration. A brass band from a big 
town would play in the public square, be- 
tween speeches by noted members of the 
State Grange. Pony-races by cowboys from 
the neighboring ranches, the inevitable rop- 
ing match, a big open-air dinner for the 
public, and, to wind up with a dance at night 
in the town-hall, where the various exhibits 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 87 

from the farms — ^the grain, fruits and vege- 
tables were displayed. 

As the Spooners desired to see all these 
spectacles, they started out bright and early; 
Mrs. Spooner, the Babe and Ruth^s suit- 
case in the phaeton, the girls and Roy riding 
their ponies. 

Cousin Hannah, whose husband — a mild 
little man, quite overshadowed by his big, 
bustling wife — ^was a rancher without a 
ranch, spending most of his time taking cattle 
to the fattening ranges above, or to market in 
other states, lived in a big, flimsily built 
frame house in the little prairie town of 
Emerald. Mrs. Pratt boarded the station- 
agent, the telegraph operator, the school- 
teacher, and nearly all of what might be 
termed the floating population of the town. 

Maudie, the Pratt’s only child, was a 
girl about Elizabeth’s age, rather pretty 
and very much spoiled by her mother and 
her grandmother, who lived in another 


88 THE GIRLS OF 

state, and who often had Maudie come and 
visit her. 

Mr. Pratt, who happened to be at home 
for the festival, with his wife, came out to 
meet their guests, welcoming them with 
much hospitality. 

^^The sight of you’s sure good for sore 
eyes, Jennie,^’ exclaimed Cousin Hannah, 
as she folded Mrs. Spooner in her ample 
embrace. ^‘I’m tickled to death to see 
you! And ain’t that buggy a sight. It 
looks ’most as good as new, I declare!” 

*‘It’s not a buggy, Cousin Hannah — 
it’s a phantom, ” said the Babe, with dignity. 

Almost as good as new, indeed! Where 
were Cousin Hannah’s eyes? Very few 
phaetons looked so new and delightful, to 
the Babe’s vision, anyway, as this vehicle, 
in whose loving rejuvenation every one of 
them had been allowed to have a hand. 

^^A phantom, is it?” laughed Cousin 
Hannah. ‘‘Well, you come in here to the 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


89 


dining-room and find out whether these 
cookies are phantoms. The big girls want 
to go up to Maudie’s room, I know. Run 
along, honies, I’ll take care of your ma and 
the Babe, and Mr. Prat’ll look after Roy. 
Maudie ain’t come out, yet; she’s feelin’ 
poorly, and wants to save up her strength 
for to-night. Maudie’s right delicate.” 

^^Come in!” called out Maudie, when 
Elizabeth and Ruth, with the suit-case be- 
tween them, rapped at her door. 

The young lady sat at her dresser, attired 
in a much trimmed and flowered kimona, 
leisurly doing” her nails with a silver- 
handled polisher from an elaborate dressing- 
case spread open before her. 

Hello ! If it ain’t Elizabeth and Ruth I ” 
she greeted, with somewhat condescending 
cordiality. ^‘You all come in to seethe 
country jays celebrate? Emerald’s such a 
pokey little hole folks are glad to see most 
anything, for a change. ” 


90 


THE GIRLS OF 


you think Emerald’s duU, Maudie, 
what would you do out on our ranch?” 
asked Elizabeth, laughingly. 

Maudie shuddered. Horrors! Don’t 
mention it — such a fate would be too un- 
speakable!’ ’ 

*‘Yet Elizabeth and I manage to stand 
it — and I reckon we’re as happy as most 
girls, ” protested Ruth, stoutly. 

^‘0, that’s because you don’t know any 
better. You’ve never enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of city life, as I have, ” said Maudie 
superiorly. 

“I suppose your grandmother gave you 
a heap of pretty things, as usual,” said 
Elizabeth, anxious to change the subject. 

yes, a good many,” carelessly replied 
Maudie. ^^How do you like this diamond 
ring? She gave me this on my birthday. ” 

She held out her hand, which was adorned 
with several rings, one of them a small but 
showily set diamond. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


91 


Elizabeth and Ruth viewed the jewel 
with admiring amazement. Neither one of 
them had ever seen a diamond before, and to 
their untutored eyes it represented splen- 
dor indeed. 

“Try it on, ” said Maudie affably, pleased 
with their exclamations of delighted wonder. 
It was much too large for Elizabeth’s slender 
finger, but it fitted Ruth’s plumper one 
pretty well. 

Maudie replaced the ring on her own 
finger, and lifted out the tray of her trunk. 
“What are you girls going to wear to- 
night?” she asked carelessly. 

“I’m not going to stay, but Ruth will wear 
her white dress,” said Elizabeth. Somehow 
Ruth felt as if she couldn’t speak of her 
poor little frock among all Maudie’s radiant 
treasures. 

“Oh,” Maudie’s eyebrows lifted slightly. 
“ Let me show you what I’m going to wear.” 
And she unfolded and shook out the shim- 


92 


THE GIRLS OF 


mering breadths of a pale blue summer silk, 
lavishly trimmed with lace and ribbon. 

'‘O-o-o!” breathed Ruth, rapturously, 
never saw such a perfectly beautiful dress, 
Maudie!” 

And Elizabeth echoed, warmly, “ A beau- 
tiful dress — and just the color I^d like, if I 
ever had a party dress.” 

“It is rather pretty, I think,” acknowl- 
edged Maudie, with the air of a person to 
whom silks are a matter of course. She 
took out more dresses, dazzling the eyes of 
her country cousins with the sight of so 
much magnificence, and making poor Ruth 
feel very shabby indeed. 

“My pink challis or blue mull would fit 
you exactly, Elizabeth — ^you’re tall as I 
am. Stay aU night and I’ll lend you either 
one of them you want. I’d like to have 
you stay, too — ^the girls here are so com- 
mon.” 

Elizabeth’s cheeks flushed redly. Evi- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


93 


dently Cousin Hannah had made no further 
disclosures. To Maudie, Elizabeth was stiU 
her cousin, and a Spooner — ^the name that 
had once seemed so commonplace and now 
so beautiful compared to that of the de- 
spised movers. 

“O, but really I can’t stay Maudie; it’s 
good of you to want me, and to offer to lend 
me your beautiful clothes, but mother can’t 
spare us both very well, and Mary and I 
came last year, you know!” 

0, well, if you won’t you won’t. But I 
should think you’d jump at the chance of 
going to a party,” said Maudie, who did 
not bother over consideration for her own 
mother. 

Just then Cousin Hannah poked her head 
in at the door. '‘Maudie, honey,” she 
asked, conciliatingly, "can’t you just run 
in and set the table when dinner’s ready, 
so’s I can stay up town with your Cousin 
Jennie and the girls? And if the telegraph 


94 


THE GIRLS OF 


operator comes in give him his dinner? 
You know he has to have it early. 

‘‘Why on earth can’t the cook give him 
his dinner?” frowned Maudie, petulantly. 
“I hate that old operator, anyway. Isn’t 
the cook hired to set the table? I ain’t 
feeling well, and I don’t want to overdo 
so’s I can’t go to the hall to-night.” 

“O, well,” said her mother, resignedly, 
“I reckon I’ll hurry back and ’tend to it 
myself, if you ain’t feelin’ well.” 

But Ruth spoke up eagerly: “Let me do 
it. Cousin Hannah. I don’t care about 
going up town — and I’d love to do it for 
you.” 

“Bless your heart — ^you’re a reg’lar httle 
help-all!” beamed Cousin Hannah, grate- 
fully, and with Mrs. Spooner and Ehzabeth, 
went on her way in great content, knowing 
that everything would go on well at home. 

Maudie stayed in her room and spent her 
time deciding on her party finery, while 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


95 


busy Ruth swept and dusted the big dining 
room, that was always in a state of more or 
less disorder, laid the table carefully and 
had the operator’s dinner ready punctually. 

“Have a good time, little daughter,” 
Mrs. Spooner said to Ruth, when at the 
close of a long day of sightseeing she and 
the Babe were once more seated in the 
phaeton. And Ruth rephed happily that 
she would — she was certain of having a 
perfectly beautiful time. 

That night she wiped the supper dishes 
for the cook, and, after she had dressed, 
helped to button Cousin Hannah into her 
own tight and unaccustomed dress-up 
clothes. 

Maudie, who declared that she never 
liked to be among the first because it was 
more genteel to be late, took a long time 
to dress but reaUy looked quite pretty in her 
pale blue frock; Ruth, with heartily sincere 
appreciation, told her so. 


96 


THE GIRLS OF 


Thank you,” acknowledged Maudie, 
languidly, eyeing Ruth’s laundered white 
dress and pink girdle with tolerant pity. 
Then her eyes falling on Elizabeth’s fan 
her expression changed to eager covetous- 
ness. 

Where in the world did you get that 
fan?” she asked. “ Do you — do you really 
think it matches your dress? It seems to 
me a fan like that is out of place with a 
wash dress. I haven’t one. I lost mine 
when I was at grandmother’s.” 

This is Elizabeth’s; father sent it from 
Cuba.” 

Ruth spoke rather hesitatingly; she 
would have offered to lend the ornament 
at once, if it had been her own, for she was 
a generous little soul, but she did not feel 
like risking Elizabeth’s property. 

say,” spoke Maudie abruptly, ‘Tend 
me the fan, Ruth, and I’ll let you wear my 
diamond ring.” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


97 


^^0, Maudie!’’ gasped Ruth, hesitation 
in her heart but delight in her eyes, “I 
couldn^t — oughtn’t to wear your ring. 
Something might happen.” 

^^Not a thing’ll happen,” declared Maudie 
impatiently. ^‘Here, let me put it on your 
finger. No it isn’t too loose, either; my 
finger’s just as small as yours. I wish this 
fan was mine. It would have cost a lot 
over here, but in Cuba it’s different — or 
of course your father couldn’t have afforded 
it.” 

She had coolly appropriated Elizabeth’s 
fan, waving it to and fro with complacent 
admiration. All Emerald had seen the dia- 
mond, but the fan was entirely new, and 
she realized that it would be greatly ad- 
mired. 

Poor little Ruth, dazzled by the flashing 
ring, forgot her mother’s disapproval of 
borrowing, and went to the hall with a light 
heart. 


98 


THE GIRLS OF 


The Spooner girls had gone to school in 
Emerald when their father was at home, and 
they could be spared from the ranch, so she 
knew all the boys and girls who were pres- 
ent, and was soon having a very jolly and 
sociable time, while Maudie, as befitting a 
person accustomed to city life, was moving 
about among the crowd with a rather bored 
air, displaying her finery to the admiring 
eyes of her neighbors, and w?ving Eliza- 
beth’s fan languidly. 

Still, for all her indifferent air, Maudie 
felt aggrieved that Ruth, in her shabby 
white lawn, should receive so much at- 
tention, while she in her blue silk was com- 
paratively neglected. 

As she sat beside her mother and watched 
Ruth dancing merrily to the music of the 
band, Maudie felt a growing rancor towards 
her unoffending cousin, finally deciding that 
she would put an end to the enjoyment she 
could not take part in. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


99 


“ I want to go home, I’m tired of it all — 
it is so stupid,” she complained to her 
mother. Besides, I don’t feel very well. 
Call Ruth and let’s go right away.” 

No use disturbing Ruth, she seems to be 
enjoying herself, if you ain’t,” remarked 
Mr. Pratt, mildly. ^^Any of the young 
folks’ll see her home safe.” 

But Maudie flatly refused to go without 
Ruth, who was hastily summoned from her 
dance by Cousin Hannah, and hustled un- 
ceremoniously away from the hall. 

^‘O, I did have such a good time!” said 
Ruth, radiantly. ^‘I’m so sorry we had to 
come away so soon, Maudie.” 

It takes mighty little to give some folks 
a good time,” said Maudie, tartly. ‘‘I 
thought the crowd was awfully coarse and 
common, even for Emerald. I hope you 
took good care of my ring,” she continued, 
sharply, for Ruth uttering an exclamation. 


100 


THE GIRLS OF 


of fear, had stopped and was groping wildly 
about in the sand at her feet. 

‘‘ 0, Maudie!” Ruth’s voice quavered with 
fear, “O, Maudie — ^I’ve lost it!” 

^‘Lost my diamond ring!” Maudie shrilled 
wrathfuUy, why was I such a goose as 
to lend it to you!” 

What’s that? Your diamond ring that 
Grandma Pratt gave you? O, my me! 
Was Ruth wearing it? How’d that come? 
Whatever made you go and lose it, Ruth?” 
groaned Cousin Hannah, not waiting for a 
reply to any of her questions. 

^Ht — ^it was too large,” faltered Ruth, 
^^it must have slipped off my finger. We’ll 
find it in a minute. I know I had it on 
when we left the hall* I kept feeling of it 
because it didn’t fit me very well.” 

‘‘Then you’d no business to borrow it,” 
scolded Cousin Hannah. “What made you 
wear it, if it was too loose?” 

“Maudie wanted Elizabeth’s fan,” ex- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


101 


plained Ruth, miserably. ‘‘And — and she 
lent me the ring in place of it. I told her 
then it was too large.” 

“Yes, blame it all on me!” reproached 
Maudie, bitterly. “Here — ^take your old 
fan! I reckon it didn’t cost more than a 
few cents, but at least I took care of it!” 

“Think where you had it last, Ruth — 
think hardl” implored Cousin Hannah, dis- 
tractedly, “I’d hate so for that expensive 
ring to be lost — ^just throwed away, you 
might say. I don’t know what we could 
say to Grandma Pratt.” 

“I had it in the hall, I’m certain,” said 
Ruth, dull with woe. “Of course I don’t 
remember where or when it came off my 
finger.” 

“ Then we’U go right back to the hall and 
search for it,” decided Mr. Pratt. “Come 
along. No use in making so much fuss, 
Maudie. Wait till you’re plumb certain 
it’s gone for good.” 


102 


THE GIRLS OF 


Back to the still crowded hall they went, 
and poor Ruth, in bitter mortification, had 
to listen to Maudie’s shrill announcement to 
all and sundry of the fact that Ruth had 
borrowed her diamond, and then lost it. 
Which came, she explained loudly, of lend- 
ing things to people who weren^t used to 
them, and couldn’t understand their value. 

^^0,” thought poor Ruth, in her despair- 
ing heart, ^‘if I’d only hstened to mother I 
never would have been in all this trouble — 
if I’d only hstened to mother!” 

Mr. Pratt, going to the young men who 
had charge of the hall, made known to them 
the loss, and there was much searching, but 
aU without result — ^Maudie’s ring was indeed 
gone! 

Downheartedly the party trailed along 
home 5 Maudie in tears, sobbing wrathfuUy 
that she would never, never lend her things 
again — ^no matter if people did beg and pray 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 103 

her to do it. No indeed, she had learned a 
lesson ! 

And Cousin Hannah, with torturing in- 
sistence, kept asking over and over again if 
Ruth couldn’t remember where she had lost 
the ring. She ought to try and remember, 
seeing that it was her own fault. She 
oughtn’t to have worn a ring she knew was 
too loose for her finger. 

To these questions Ruth could only an- 
swer, over and again, that she didn’t know — 
she didn’t know! Indeed she was fast be- 
coming hysterical with fright and worry. 

Then mild little Mr. Pratt astonished 
them all by speaking with authority that 
commanded attention. 

^‘That’s quite enough, Hannah,” he said 
sharply. ‘'Maudie, don’t let’s have any 
more noise from you! If your ring’s gone 
it’s gone, that’s all there is to it. I told 
mother, when she asked me about it, that 


104 


THE GIRLS OF 


it was foolish to give you a diamond when 
you was so yoimg. I don’t know if I ain’t 
glad it’s lost, if you want my opinion. Now 
understand, I want an end to all this talk. 
No use in badgerin’ poor Ruth to death, 
either, Hannah.” 

^^For pity’s sake, Jim!” exclaimed Cousin 
Hannah, ^‘1 didn’t aim to badger the child. 
There, honey, don’t cry over it — accidents 
will happen. I didn’t aim to hurt your 
feelin’s, no mor’n you aimed to lose the 
ring. I was jest sorter flustered-like.” And 
she patted Ruth’s hand soothingly. 

Maudie, though sniffing dolefully, said no 
more at the moment, being warned by a 
certain unaccustomed note in her father’s 
voice that his commands must be obeyed. 
But in the privacy of their room that night 
she turned the thumbscrews on poor Ruth 
with savage pressure. 

^^Of course people who are just a little 
above paupers can lose other people’s prop- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


105 


erty without worrying much about it,” she 
remarked sarcastically. 

And Ruth, in a burst of indignation at 
such aspersions on her family, answered 
spiritedly: “No such thing, Maudie Pratt! 
I intend to pay you for your ring, of course.” 

“Pay me?” Maudie jeered, scornfully. 
“O yes, it's likely you’ll ever be able to pay 
me a hundred dollars for my diamond!” 

Ruth gasped — ^the amount was so far 
above her calculation. But her fighting 
blood was up, for the honor of her family 
was at stake. 

“I haven’t the money on hand, but I’ll 
certainly pay you by next Thanksgiving,” 
she said, with proud resolution. 

And the green cardboard box at home, 
containing all the money she possessed in 
the world, held just thirty-five cents! 








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^ 4 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


107 


Chapter V 

The Silver Spur Bakery 

Elizabeth/’ whispered Ruth, tragically, 
have done something too awful to tell — 
and I’ve got to tell it.” 

just knew you were dreadfully wor- 
ried,” whispered back Elizabeth, sympa- 
thetically. ‘‘ 1 knew it as soon as you came 
back this morning. Mother thought you 
were just plain tired, but I felt in my bones 
that there was worse. What is it?” 

The two girls were in their room getting 
ready for bed, tiptoeing and whispering to 
avoid waking Mrs. Spooner, who was sleep- 
ing in the next room. 

‘Tt’s this, Elizabeth — ” Ruth’s whisper 
was a wail of despair — ^I’ve lost Maudie 
Pratt’s — diamond — ^ring: And I’ve prom- 


108 


THE GIRLS OF 


ised to pay her for it by Thanksgiving! 
Elizabeth, it cost — a hundred — dollars! And 
you know IVe got just thirty-five cents in 
all the world !’^ 

Then, Ehzabeth remaining dumb from 
astonishment, she went on to tell the whole 
story. 

^‘And, O, Elizabeth, how will I ever get 
the money?’ ^ she ended, despairingly. 

“ You mustn’t tell mother, Ruth,” 
warned Elizabeth, with that sweet, elder- 
sister air that had grown on her since Mary 
went away; “she’s got worries enough al- 
ready with father away, and everybody 
afraid it’s going to be a dry year. I can’t 
think just now of any way to earn a hun- 
dred dollars quick. I’ll sleep on it — ^maybe 
I’ll dream of a way. One thing’s certain; 
you’ve got to keep your word, for the credit 
of the family.” 

“ I was just sure you’d feel that way about 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


109 


it, Elizabeth. What on earth would we do 
without you!” sighed Ruth, gratefully. 

Secure in Ehzabeth’s ability to find a 
way, she nestled down among her pillows 
and went peacefully to sleep. And indeed 
she needed it sorely, after the miserably 
wakeful night she had spent with Maudie 
Pratt. 

Elizabeth did not dream at all. She lay 
awake so long trying to think up some 
miraculous way by which Ruth and she 
might earn a hundred dollars, that when 
she did fall asleep her slumber was entirely 
too deep for dreams to enter — so deep in- 
deed that it took the warning rattle of the 
alarm-clock to wake her in time to get the 
early breakfast necessary for Roy and Jonah. 

“Did you think of anything, Elizabeth?” 
asked Ruth anxiously, as she, too, sprang 
out of bed at the alarm-clock’s warning. 
And Elizabeth was obliged to confess that 
she hadn’t yet. 


110 


THE GIRLS OF 


“But don’t you worry,” she soothed, “I’ll 
think of a way. Let’s ask Roy, as soon as 
we get a chance; somehow I feel sure he 
could help.” 

It was evening before they found an op- 
portunity to take Roy into their confidence, 
down at the milk-pen. Milking had been 
one of the girls’ recognized duties before he 
came, since then he had forbidden them to 
interfere with the chores, declaring them to 
be men’s work. 

Roy set the foaming pails on the fence, 
turned out the little bunch of milk-pen 
calves kept to lure home the cows from the 
open range, and regarded the girls with a 
grave face. 

“I should caU that a tough proposition,” 
he said thoughtfully, “but not impossible. 
In fact it seems that ’most anything’s pos- 
sible if you work hard enough for it. How 
about cooking, Ruth? You’re a dandy on 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


111 


‘pie’n things\ Every ranch round here 
would buy your truck if it was properly 
advertised.” 

“ That’s just it !” jubilated Elizabeth, “ ad- 
vertise! Ruth, we’ll put up a sign-board at 
the road gate: ‘Bread, Doughnuts and Pies 
for Sale.’ Every cowboy that passes will 
see it, and every single one will buy. I 
never saw a boy or man that wasn’t 
hungry.” 

“Elizabeth has a great head,” nodded 
Roy, approvingly, “that’s the ticket, Ruth. 
I’ll paint the sign-board to-night and to- 
morrow you begin baking — ^money!” 

Ruth breathed a sigh of relief. “I just 
can’t thank you enough, Roy,” she de- 
declared gratefully. “I’ll bake day and 
night if I can just pay Maudie Pratt for 
that hateful ring!” 

Mrs. Spooner was rather bewildered when 
her young folks — ^the Babe excepted, begged 


112 


THE GIRLS OF 


earnestly for permission to make some 
money by going into the bakery business. 

“We can^t tell you just now what it^s for, 
mother,” explained Ruth. “Only that it’s 
for something important. You’ll know all 
about it when the right time comes.” 

“It seems to me that every one of you 
does as much work as possible, now,” 
doubted Mrs. Spooner. “But as Ruth’s 
heart seems to be set upon this extra labor, 
I promise not to interfere. And I won’t 
ask any questions about it until you see 
fit to tell me of your own accord.” 

The Babe, who had listened carefully to 
this conversation, beamed hopefully upon 
them, seeing in the plan certain possibilities. 

“/’W help you, Ruth,” she volunteered 
magnanimously. “And maybe if you make 
a whole heap of money, you might have 
enough left over to buy a new Ivanhoe. 
Mine’s got seven leaves lost out, right at 
the most exciting part.” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


113 


^‘Done!” agreed Roy heartily, promise 
that you shall have a new Ivanhoe if you 
help. The bargain’s between you and me, 
Baby. We’ll leave the girls out of it.” 

^‘Except to see that you earn your book,” 
laughed Elizabeth. 

That night when they were all gathered 
around the evening lamp, Roy painted the 
sign on a smooth white board, with some 
of the brown paint left over from the phae- 
ton. Bread, he declared, was Ruth’s “long 
suit,” but as cowboys would scarcely like 
dry bread, it was cut out of the list. Pies, 
however, were always acceptable. Custard 
being objected to as too “squshy,” they de- 
cided on mince and apply as being best for 
cooks and customers. Doughnuts, of course, 
because everybody liked the little fried 
cakes, and they could be conveniently 
handled. Completed, the sign read: 


114 


THE GIRLS OF 


‘^HOME-MADE DOUGHNUTS. 

APPLE PIES. 

MINCE PIES. 

FOR SALE AT 
SILVER SPUR RANCH.” 

“Now,” decided Roy, after all the family 
had duly admired his handiwork, “I’m go- 
ing to Emerald early in the morning, and 
I’ll fetch back aU your necessary supplies, 
down to the paper bags to hold ’em, by 
noon. The McGregor ranch is shipping 
cattle — ^they’ll pass here Thursday, one of 
their punchers told me; that’ll be day after 
to-morrow. You can spend the afternoon 
baking and be ready for them, for I’m cer- 
tain they’U buy you out. Their range-cook’s 
quit, and Chunky Bill’s cooking for the 
outfit, so they’re about starved for some- 
thing good to eat.” 

“We’ll be obliged to have the first gro- 
ceries charged to you, mother,” apologized 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


115 


Ruth, “but we promise to pay for them 
ourselves.” 

“Very well — only don’t buy too much at a 
time,” warned Mrs. Spooner, who was 
doubtful of the success of the enterprise, 
“until you are sure of making sales.” 

“We’ll succeed all right, never you fear, 
mumsy,” asserted Roy, with cheerful con- 
fidence. “I’ll drum up trade, and Ruth’s 
good cooking’ll do the rest.” 

Fuel in that woodless country was quite 
an item; Roy, realizing this, brought home 
the next day a load of coke along with the 
other supplies, all, it was agreed, to be paid 
for out of the proceeds of the sales. 

Also he brought good news from Emerald, 
where he had met one of the cowboys from 
the McGregor ranch, who not only con- 
firmed the report of the cattle passing next 
day, but told him that the ranch cook had 
quit out there, as well as the man hired to 
go with the shipping outfit. He offered to 


116 


THE GIRLS OF 


get Ruth the job of baking for the ranch 
until a new cook could be procured. 

“Of course I said Ruth would take the 
job, so he’s to bring along the order in the 
morning. How’s that for a beginning for 
The Silver Spur Bakery?” 

“I see land ahead!” exulted Ehzabeth, 
joyfully waving her big cook-apron. “Al- 
low me to invest you with your uniform, 
Mademoiselle Chef : You will now proceed 
to mix the magic potions, while the Babe 
kindles the fire on the Altar of Cookery 
known to mere mortals as the kitchen range, 
and I complete the rites by roUing out the 
crust and filling the tins. Know all men 
by these greetings, the Silver Spur Bakerj^ 
is ready for business, and Roy may go tack 
up the sign.” 

Inspired by the hope of reward, they 
made a frohc of the baking working with 
such zeal and enthusiasm that when even- 
ing came and the chief cook doffed her 



Roy Painted the Sion on a Smooth White Board 

(Silver Spur Ranch) Page 113 


m 





SILVER SPUR RANCH 


117 


floury apron with a sigh of weary content, 
there were shelves full of pies and pans full 
of doughnuts as a result of their labors. 
Delicate pies, with crisply melting covers 
and toothsome ^‘inwards,” and doughnuts 
that were deliciously tender and flavory. 

‘‘Just for this once we’ll let everybody 
have a treat,” decided Ruth, generously. 
“We’ll just make a big pot of coffee and 
have doughnuts and pie for supper. I want 
Roy and Jonah to have a taste; they’U 
relish sweets for a change.” 

“And I think we’d better let them fix 
the price, too,” suggested Elizabeth. “Men 
always know more about such things than 
we do.” 

Roy and Jonah were most appreciative 
judges, declaring that twenty-five cents 
apiece was dirt-cheap for the apple, and — 
mincemeat costing so much more than dried 
apples — ^fifty cents for the mince pies. The 
doughnuts, being superlatively excellent, 


118 THE GIRLS OF 

were valued at five cents apiece, or fifty 
cents a dozen. 

The Babe could not be kept off the porch 
next morning, hovering there to watch for 
the McGregor outfit. Soon, like Blue- 
beard’s sister-in-law, she reported a cloud 
of dust rising — ^the customers were coming! 

Far ahead of the herd rode a single horse- 
man who turned in at the gate and came 
galloping up to the house. The futile 
chuck-wagon, with its incompetent cook, 
slid past unnoticed while the message from 
Mrs. McGregor was delivered. She had 
sent a tin bread-box of ample size, and she 
wanted it filled with so much bread, cake 
and pie, that the Silver Spur Bakery was 
rather startled. She thought the amount 
she specified might last them for half the 
week, the messenger said, and at the end 
of that time she would return the empty tin 
box to be refilled. And the Spooner girls 
were to put their own prices on their wares. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


119 


While these things were being settled 
two other riders from the shipping herd 
came up for sample orders, and hurried into 
the kitchen with the Babe and Mrs. Spooner, 
eager to buy something to satisfy the pangs 
of hunger to which Chunky Bill’s cooking 
had delivered them. 

The stocky little Englishman who had 
brought Mrs. McGregor’s note, and said he 
would be back from Emerald on his return 
trip next morning for the box, if they would 
have it ready for him, paused at the edge 
of the porch and negotiated a more personal 
errand. 

“And I’ve a little order of my own. Miss,” 
grinned he cowboy genially. “You see, 
I’m from the old country, myself, and I’m 
fairly longing for a taste of plum-pudding 
once more. Think you’re equal to making 
one? I’m willing to pay your own price.” 

There was a note of wistful eagerness in 
his voice that touched Ruth’s sympathies. 


120 


THE GIRLS OF 


but a plum-pudding was, she feared, beyond 
her powers. Elizabeth, seeing her hesita- 
tion, spoke promptly. ‘‘Certainly, we’ll 
be pleased to fill your order,” she said, with 
business like briskness. “And if it isn’t 
as good as any you ever ate in England you 
needn’t pay for it.” 

“I’m sure it’ll be rippin’ good pudding, 
if you make it, miss,” politely assured the 
cowboy, and, with a sweeping bow, he 
mounted his pony and galloped away to 
join the approaching herd. 

As the hundreds of cattle tramped slowly 
by, one after another of the attending 
punchers turned in at the Spooner’s gate, a 
purchaser to the full extent of his pocket- 
book. 

Doughnuts and pies fairly melted away; 
Mrs. Spooner and the Babe filling the bags 
in the kitchen while Ruth and Elizabeth 
delivered the goods and received the money. 

And, when they counted up the receipts 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


121 


that night, they found that, deducting all 
expenses, there would be five dollars profit! 

And the McGregor ranch to bake for!” 
crowed Elizabeth, joyously. “Ruth, I 
plainly see land ahead!” 

so relieved!” sighed Ruth, “But 
Elizabeth, are you sure you can manage 
the pudding?” 

“ ^In the bright lexicon of youth there’s 
no such word as fail’, little sister,” laughed 
Elizabeth. “0/ course I can bake — or boil 
— or steam a pudding as well as a bom 
Britisher! In fact, being an American citi- 
zen, I don’t see why I can’t make even a 
better one. Let me take a look at that old 
cook-book of mother’s.” 

All the next day they baked for the Mc- 
Gregor ranch, besides boiling the pudding 
for the Englishman. Elizabeth declared 
she wanted him to try it before he paid for 
it, but after one glance and a hearty sniff, 
he decided to pay in advance the two doUars 


122 


THE GIRLS OF 


and fifty cents which Elizabeth had figured 
out as a fair price. 

That it was satisfactory was fully proven 
when he returned for the next baking, with 
orders for half-dozen more. 

“I poured brandy over it and set it afire, 
like they do in England,” he said. “And 
every bloomin’ puncher that tasted it is 
wild for more! They call it ‘ The Perishin’ 
Martyr Pie.’ O, it’s made a hit, all right.” 

After that there was quite a run on 
puddings, and hardly a day passed that the 
girls did not make a “Perishin’ Martyr Pie” 
— a name that tickled them immensely. 
Even the Babe learned to mix the batter, 
and Roy declared he was quite an expert at 
boiling martyrs. 

Money flowed into the httle green paste- 
board box, so that now there was plenty of 
company for the lonely thirty-five cents 
it had originally contained, when Ruth 
rashly decided she would pay Maudie Pratt 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


123 


for the lost diamond ring. It must be ad- 
mitted that as the money tide rose Ruth's 
spirits fell. 

it would be so lovely if we were earn- 
ing it for ourselves," she lamented. “Think 
of the things we could buy: If we could 
only give it to mother to help with the liv- 
ing I should be perfectly satisfied — ^but to 
go and hand it over to Maudie Pratt for a 
ring she just made me put on — " 

“Now, Ruth," Elizabeth interrupted, lay- 
ing a loving arm across her junior’s shoulder, 
“we’re all getting lots of fun out of the 
work. I think the whole family is finding 
that it is really play to earn money. Maybe 
we’ll get into the habit and keep it up after 
Maudie’s ring’s paid for. Don’t you worry. 
If we do the best we can, and do it every 
day, we are going to arrive at delectable 
places." 

Ruth looked at her sister fondly. What 
would they do without Elizabeth’s strong 


124 


THE GIRLS OF 


heart and capable head for planing? It was 
Elizabeth who hunted up a Mexican boy 
sufficiently reliable to be trusted with a 
lard-can full of the ^pies ’n things’ which 
found a good market at the round-ups. 
This was not the season for them, but there 
is always something of the sort taking place 
in the cattle country, and Juan was willing 
to drive an absurd number of miles for a 
modest share in their profits. Never a cow- 
boy passed the Spooners’ attractive sign 
without galloping up for a purchase, and the 
early receipts from the bakery were as- 
tonishingly good. 

But after awhile the McGregors secured 
a cook, and there were no more round-ups 
in reach; the cowboys had all become sur- 
feited with a rich excess of ^‘Perishin’ 
Martyrs,” so that orders declined and 
finally fell off altogether on that commodity. 
The grocer was paid, there was nearly a 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


125 


barrel of flour on hand, and part of a large 
tin of lard, but there was only seventy-nine 
dollars earned. Thanksgiving was approach- 
ing, and the hearts of the girls began to 
sink, thinking of its nearness and of the 
insufficient money in the green box. 

And then, the very day before Thanks- 
giving, the unexpected happened, when 
Mrs. McGregor rode over, bright and early, 
from her ranch with a most unusual and 
imperative order for pumpkin-pies! 

It seemed that a lot of unexpected guests 
had arrived from the east to spend Thanks- 
giving at the ranch, and, to celebrate the 
occasion properly, the McGregors had de- 
cided to join forces with a neighboring ranch 
and have a big barbecue and picnic-dinner 
in the open, to which all the neighbors were 
invited. The other ranch was to furnish 
all the meat for the feast — ^fat mutton and 
beef and shotes, to be barbecued deliciously 


126 


THE GIRLS OF 


over pits of glowing coals, while Mrs. Mc- 
Gregor was to provide the bread, pies and 
vegetables. 

course you should have been notified 
days ago,’^ said the pleasant little lady, with 
deprecating hands outspread, ‘‘only I didn’t 
know myself till last night! Now my cook 
can manage the bread and vegetables, and 
you, my dears, must furnish the pumpkin- 
pies or I’m a forsworn woman: I’ve cal- 
culated and re-calculated, and I find that, 
allowing five pieces to a pie, it will take a 
hundred and six pies to give everybody 
plenty — ^you know how men eat! Now 
dears — ” she put a persuasive arm around 
each girl — “can you bake them?” 

Ruth gasped. “How in the world can 
we — ^in one day? Of course we have plenty 
of pumpkins — ^Jonah raised a big patch of 
them for cow-feed, and there’s a barrel of 
fiour and plenty of lard and sugar and 
things. But in one day — ” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


127 


We’ll do it, Mrs. McGregor,” inter- 
rupted Elizabeth, smilingly. We’ll fill 
your order, and thank you very much. 
Jonah Bean shall deliver them early in the 
morning.” 

^‘My dear girl, you’ve simply saved my 
life — can never thank you enough!” Mrs. 
McGregor rose, fumbling in her pretty silver 
wrist-bag. “Twenty-six dollars and fifty 
cents, I believe. Here’s your money — and 
thank you very, very much: And don’t 
you forget that every single member of 
your family is expected at our Thanksgiving 
dinner.” 

“Why did you take her order, Elizabeth?” 
wondered Ruth, when their guest was gone, 
“it will work us to death!” 

“ Not a bit of it, dear child. Listen, Ruth 
Spooner, there’s just seventy-nine dollars 
in your green box. Twenty-six added makes 
a hundred and five. Five dollars is a great 
plenty for expenses, seeing that we have the 


128 


THE GIRLS OF 


pumpkiQs already. The odd fifty cents 
will buy a little present for the Babe, and 
leave you your full hundred to pay Maudie 
Pratt for her ring. ’Rah, ’rah, ’rah for the 
girls of the Silver Spur! Our debt’s paid!” 

Glory !” Ruth’s shouts suddenly wavered, 
the apron she waved aloft was thrown over 
her face as she burst into tears. 

“0, Elizabeth — shut the door — don’t 
want anybody else to see me cry. I’m a 
wretch — and you’re a genius — but — but — 
can’t help thinking about us all working 
so hard and Maudie Pratt getting all our 
money!” 

‘‘I know, honey,” said Elizabeth, under- 
standingly, “if I stop to think I feel that 
way myself. Let’s not stop to think.” 

Ruth choked down her tears, bathed her 
eyes and turned a resolute face from the 
washstand. 

“I’m all right,” she said in a determinedly 
cheerful voice. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 129 

Elizabeth threw open the bedroom door 
and ran out among their helpers. 

“Kindle a fire, Babe, while we get the 
pumpkins. Isn’t it a mercy that Roy and 
Jonah are off the range to-day and can stay. 
Everybody’ll have to get to work cutting 
up pumpkins — even mother.” 

All day they baked. The stove in the 
house, the brick oven in the yard which had 
scarcely been allowed to get cold since Ruth 
began her enterprise, were both kept filled. 
The baked pies were lifted out of their tins 
as soon as cool enough and dropped into 
paper plates. But even so they could not 
get enough tins to keep the baking up to 
the volume required for getting out the 
hundred pies in that length of time. At last 
Ruth announced in tones of dismay: 

“ There isn’t a single tin left. What shall 
we do?” 

“H’m, let me work my giant brain a 
moment,” pondered Elizabeth. “ How about 


130 


THE GIRLS OF 


tin shingles? There’re a lot of new ones, 
you know, nice and clean. And plenty of 
lard-cans. Roy can cut rings from the cans, 
and lay them on the shingles. They’ll be 
extra large pies, but they’ll hold the dough 
all right.” 

It was a good idea, and it worked out very 
well, with a little care in handling the bulky 
“tins,” so that there was no more time lost 
in waiting for cooling pies. 

Jonah, who kept the fires going, became 
cheerfully loquacious under the influence 
of the strong coffee Mrs. Spooner insisted 
on making, to keep the workers awake at 
their tasks. He regaled them -v^th thrill- 
ing stories of the war, and Munchausen 
deeds of bravery performed by himself 
while in service. Tales which served the 
twofold purpose of inspiring Jonah and 
amusing his hearers. 

The girls insisted upon their mother and 
the Babe going to bed, so as to be rested for 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


131 


the barbecue, which they determined to 
attend, as the ranch lay only a little way 
beyond Emerald. But they, with Roy and 
Jonah as able assistants, kept on baking till 
the last pie of the hundred and six was cool- 
ing on the shelf, and the voice of the oldest 
and most experienced rooster warned them 
of the coming dawn. 

However, every Spooner was up and 
dressed in time next morning, with the pies 
safely packed in the wagon, which Jonah 
was to drive, Roy and the girls acting as 
Mrs. Spooner’s escort. 

When they started Ruth rode ahead. 
Nobody but Elizabeth knew what was be- 
hind her resolutely smiling face. Pinned in 
the pocket of her jacket there was a roll of 
bills — a hundred dollars. The thought of 
Maudie’s exultation over its receipt pinched 
Elizabeth almost as much as giving up the 
money. She lagged behind a httle and 
talked of it with Roy. They agreed that 


132 


THE GIRLS OF 


the money-earning fever had got into their 
blood, and that nothing less than a new 
enterprise to companion this old one, which 
they agreed must be carried forward, would 
satisfy either of them. 

They had reached Emerald when Ruth, 
trotting briskly along its one street, sud- 
denly felt her pony go lame, and quickly 
dismounted to examine its hoof for a pos- 
sible pebble or ball of clay. 

Suddenly, with a curious little choking 
cry, she sprang into the saddle and raced 
ahead, the pony now going quite easily. 

Roy and Elizabeth exchanged indignant 
glances. Evidently Ruth was overcome be- 
cause she had to give up her precious money 
so soon. 

I guess it’s got on her nerves,” whispered 
Elizabeth. I feel pretty much like crying, 
myself.” 

** Ruth must be going ahead to let Cousin 
Hannah know we are coming,” remarked 



Quickly Dismounted to Examine Its Hoof fok a Possible 
Pebble ok Ball of Clay 


(Girls of Silver Spur Ranch) 


Page 132 



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SILVER SPUR RANCH 


133 


her mother, placidly. hope it’ll be so 
that they can all go. I haven’t seen any of 
them since the Harvest Home festival.” 

But Ruth had stopped a little way ahead, 
waving impatiently for her family to catch 
up, and hastening on they all arrived at the 
Pratt home together. ' 

Mr. Pratt and his wife came out, Maudie, 
very much dressed up, followed languidly. 

^^Have you got my money, Ruth?” she 
called in her high, shrill voice. bet any- 
thing you haven’t — ^and I was depending 
on it to go to Chicago and study music.” 

“No,” answered Ruth, with emphatic 
clearness, “I’m never going to pay you for 
that ring. I want to keep the money for 
myself, and mother and Elizabeth, and the 
Babe. O, what lovely things we’ll have out 
of a whole — hundred — dollars!” 

The Pratts stared, mystified by this mad 
speech. Elizabeth gasped — ^it did sound 
shocking. Mrs. Spooner was so little in- 


134 


THE GIRLS OF 


formed that she supposed there was a joke 
on hand, and laughed with motherly com- 
plaisance. Only Roy, pulling back close 
to Elizabeth’s shoulder, muttered in an 
undertone. 

‘'Ruth’s got something up her sleeve. 
Hold on, don’t make up your mind too 
quick about it.” 

“What in time was Ruthie goin’ to pay 
you a hundred dollars for?” Cousin Hannah 
demanded, at last. 

“For my diamond ring,” cried Maudie, 
“my lovely diamond ring that Grandma 
gave me, and that I wouldn’t have lost for a 
thousand dollars.” 

“It never cost to exceed twenty-five,” 
snorted Mr. Pratt. “Ruthie’s just right 
not to pay you more’n that — or haK as 
much. It was partly your fault for lending 
the ring.” 

“I’m not going to pay her a cent,” re- 
peated Ruth, with dancing eyes. “I’ve 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


135 


got the money — a hundred dollars — see 
here,*’’ and she flourished a sheaf of bills 
that made them gasp again. 

“I guess I can make you pay,” stormed 
Maudie, ^‘you 'promised, and you’ve got to 
keep your word.” 

^‘Well, you did lose Maudie’s diamond, 
you know. Ain’t you goin’ to replace it, 
Ruth?” asked Cousin Hannah, a little wist- 
fully. 

“You must do the right thing, daughter,” 
cautioned Mrs. Spooner, taking a part in 
the conversation for the first time. 

“I will, mother,” said Ruth, suddenly 
sobered; and she went toward Maudie Pratt 
with the sheaf of greenbacks in one hand, and 
something which nobody could see clasped 
tightly in the other. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


137 


Chapter VI 
The Shiny Black Box 

The thing was like a scene in a play, 
almost. Maudie stood, half abashed, half 
eager, and wholly frightened. Ruth came 
forward with a confident, bouyant step 
that reassured her mother. A girl who was 
going to do something impudently wrong 
would never act that way. 

There,’’ said the plump, smiling Spooner 
girl, dropping into Maudie’s outstretched 
palm a little lump of adobe clay that looked 
considerably like a rough pebble. I picked 
that out of my pony’s hoof, right in the path 
where I’d lost your ring.^’ 

^^Wha — ^what is it?” faltered Maudie, 
afraid to look. 


138 


THE GIRLS OF 


*‘Tum it over,’^ prompted Elizabeth 
impatiently. 

Maudie’s almost a paynim, or a 
caitiff/^ breathed the Babe, hiding a too 
sympathetic countenance against her 
mother’s knee. 

The Pratt girl turned the little lump of 
clay in trembling fingers. Something glit- 
tered on one side of it; the clay parted and 
a circlet with a wee, shining setting lay in 
her palm. 

^‘My diamond ring!” she gasped. 

Then before them all she flung it from 
her, so that it tinkled and skipped on the 
porch floor. This done she sat down on the 
step and burst into a tempest of wrathful 
tears. 

“I always hated it,” she sobbed. “It’s 
such a miserable little diamond. I wanted 
that hundred dollars to go to Chicago and 
study music. How in the world am I 
going to go if you don’t — ” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


139 


^^Hush, Maudie,” Mrs. Pratt cautioned, 
and her father seconded the admonition 
rather more sternly. 

The Spooner young folks had closed in 
around Mrs. Spooner’s vehicle and were 
helping her out and explaining all about the 
earning of that hundred dollars. While 
they did so the Pratts managed to get 
Maudie straightened up with the assurance 
that she should be permitted somehow to go 
to Chicago; and by the time the two groups 
came together they were ready to drop the 
subject, Maudie looking self-conscious if not 
hang-dog, whenever anything remotelycon- 
ceming a ring was mentioned.^ 

They went on harmoniously enough to 
the Thanksgiving dinner at the McGregor 
ranch. Coming home after they had passed 
Emerald and the Pratt house, the matter 
was again brought up by the Spooners. 
The sky was all a delightful lavender, with 
the big, white stars of the plains country 


140 


THE GIRLS OF 


beginning to blossom in it, and there was 
still light enough to travel very comfortably 
over the winding, level road. 

“I’m proud of the enterprise and persist- 
ance you all showed in earning that hundred 
dollars,” said Mrs. Spooner fondly. “But 
it hurts me to think you could keep a secret 
from mother as long as that; and such a 
hard secret, too. I’d have been so glad to 
help you, dears.” 

“It was my fault,” Ehzabeth said, “that 
part of it. I wouldn’t let Ruth bother you 
because I felt that you had worries enough. 
Of course if I’d dreamed for a minute that 
Maudie Pratt would tell a story about the 
value of her ring, and that twenty-five dol- 
lars was the real price of it, I should have 
let Ruth teU you; but a hundred dollars — 
why. Mother, until we tried, I wouldn’t 
have believed it was possible for us to come 
anywhere near earning a hundred dollars. 
Would you?” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


141 


^‘No,” said Mrs. Spooner. “That’s why 
I say I’m proud of you. It’s an achieve- 
ment any three young persons of your age 
may well be proud of — and none of you 
neglected your other duties for it.” 

“It was lovely” sighed Elizabeth, reminis- 
cently. “I think making money is almost 
more fun than spending it. Ruth can al- 
ways earn with her cooking. I wish I had 
a special gift. What do you think I can 
do best, mother?” 

“You do almost anything you do a little 
better than other people,” declared Mrs. 
Spooner. “But there’s one thing you can 
excel at, and that nobody else around here 
attempts, and that’s photography. Why 
not try to make a profession of it.” 

Elizabeth thought it over. 

“I suppose I’d have to go to some big 
town and study,” she ruminated. 

“Ruth didn’t go to a big town to take 
cooking lessons,” prompted Mrs. Spooner, 


142 


THE GIRLS OF 


smilingly. “And you were just admiring 
the fact that it was her good cooking that 
made the earning of the hundred dollars 
possible.” 

“Wise little mother,” said Elizabeth, 
touching her heel to her pony and riding 
ahead, blowing back a kiss as she passed, 
and cantering on for some distance. 

“I think that’s a splendid idea,” said 
Roy eagerly. “I knew a boy who worked 
his way through college almost entirely by 
camera work. And he was just an amateur 
photographer, too.” 

“I’d help her all I could,” put in Ruth, 
loyally. “She helped me — ^you all did. I 
didn’t near earn that hundred dollars 
alone.” 

Here Elizabeth came dashing back to 
announce to the family that there was an in- 
superable obstacle. If she went into the 
simplest kind of photography she would 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 1 43 

have a new camera — and oh, quite a lot of 
things. 

camera is easy,” said Mrs. Spooner, 
“since youVe all agreed to give me the 
keeping of the hundred dollars. I intend 
to put it in the bank as a reserve fund to 
draw on in case of an emergency. I’ll con- 
sider this case of yours as one, and buy you 
a camera with some of it.” 

“And I’ll fix up a dark-room all right, 
Elizabeth,” promised Roy, who was always 
intensely interested in all the Spooner’s 
affairs. “I can do it easily; just board up 
an end of the back porch, fix a red lantern 
in it for a light, with some shelves and a 
sink, same as the kitchen. I can make it. 
It won’t cost much, and you can do your 
own developing. Say, Elizabeth, that’s 
easy!” 

So it came about that, after some per- 
suasion, Elizabeth finally accepted the 


144 


THE GIRLS OF 


camera — a, small one, with chemicals, films 
and everything necessary for a start, all of 
them to be paid for out of the hundred dol- 
lars in the bank. Roy fixed up the dark- 
room with all the needed apparatus, and, 
thus equipped, Elizabeth declared herself 
ready for business, and let the public know 
it by adding to the sign down at the road 
gate another line, in smaller letters, which 
read : 

“Photographs made to order. 
Horseback pictures and views of places a 
specialty.” 

Ruth still kept up her baking in a small 
way. She no longer undertook such stren- 
uous jobs as baking for ranches or festivals, 
but people passing by usually dropped in 
for a bag of doughnuts or a pie, knowing 
that they were always kept on hand. Some 
of these customers patronized Elizabeth's 
“studio,” as she named the little boarded- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


145 


up comer of the porch, and had their 
pictures taken. More often she was asked 
to go and make a card-picture of somebody’s 
home, or she tried snap-shots of cattle 
handling which sold well to the boys who 
could identify themselves or their friends in 
a chance group. 

Elizabeth made her charges in accordance 
with her work, which, being an amateur, 
could not command professional rates. She 
studied hard her manual of photography, 
and finally after considerable debate, took a 
correspondence course in the art. Still, 
living on a ranch, she could barely make 
enough to pay for her materials, and indeed 
was doing well to accomplish this much. 

“When I get so I can earn, and have 
enough money to buy a bigger camera, I 
might try a place in town, or maybe I’ll 
put up my prices,” she said. But she re- 
sisted all suggestions that a finer camera be 
purchased from the reserve fund. “ If any- 


146 


THE GIRLS OF 


thing happens we’ll need that to live on,” 
was her wise conclusion. 

Let nobody think that there were not 
days of discouragement, when Elizabeth 
spoiled her films or the simple drudgery of 
the work weighed on her. Nothing worth 
having is got without effort. Whatever 
this girl’s ancestry, she had inherited pluck 
and persistance, and after a failure she 
always went back to work with renewed 
energy. 

will do it!” she would say to Ruth and 
Roy. ‘‘I am going to try to make myseK 
the very best photographer I can, — and 
then maybe the next higher profession will 
come along and invite me in.” 

The Babe, being the only idle inmate of 
the Silver Spur, continued to devour un- 
checked her books of romance, until an 
incident occurred that made Mrs. Spooner 
decide that the time had come for her 
reading to be a little more varied. It hap- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


147 


pened one day in the following summer, 
when old Jonah, with a worried look on his 
face, sought her for a little private con- 
versation. 

“ It’s about the Babe, ma’am. Have you 
noticed anything pertickler wrong with her 
lately?” he asked anxiously. 

Why no, Jonah; what makes you think 
there’s anything wrong? What has she 
been doing?” asked Mrs. Spooner in alarm. 
She arose from her seat hastily. “I must 
go and find her — ^where is she?” 

^‘Jest down at the corral, unsaddlin’ of 
her pony,” soothed Jonah. No need to be 
skeered — ^at the present. You set down, 
Mis’ Spooner, and I’ll tell ye. Awhile ago 
I come acrost her out on the range, a-gal- 
lopin’ along on that little rat-tailed cayuse 
o’ her’n, and I’m blest if she didn’t have a 
broom-handle over her shoulder, and a old 
fire-shovel helt out right straight in front! 
She looked out’n her eyes like — ^well, like 


148 


THE GIRLS OF 


she was seein' things. I calls to her : ‘ Babe, 
whar ye gwine?’’ But law, she looks at 
me pine-black like I was a stranger, hits 
Queen Beren-jerry, as she calls that reedic’- 
lous cayuse, and hollers back over her 
shoulder: ^Avaunt thee, villain!’ and a heap 
o’ other lingo I couldn’t make sense outer.” 

Mrs. Spooner’s face relaxed, she dropped 
back in her rocking-chair and began to 
laugh. The old man seemed to resent her 
mirth. 

^‘Now Mis’ Spooner, you may take it 
that-a-way, but ’tain’t like the Babe to be 
miscallin’ nobody, let alone me what’s 
raised her. My opinion is the child’s 
cornin’ down with fever, or got a tetch o’ 
the sun, and you better go to dosin’ her 
mighty quick!” 

^‘No, Jonah,” laughed Mrs. Spooner, 
much relieved, ^^it’s just Ivanhoe gone to 
her head — ^not the sun. She reads too 
much, and is too much alone, I’m afraid. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


149 


She was only playing she was a knight — a 
person out of that book she’s always read- 
ing. But thank you for telling me, all the 
same.” 

be glad to think it was no wuss; 
but — ” Jonah shook his head doubtfully, 
“ a-misscallin’ me a villian don’t seem 
natchul. I’ll go send her in to you, so’s 
you can look at her tongue. My notion is 
she needs doctor’s truck.” 

As he hobbled out in quest of the Babe, 
Mrs. Spooner sighed a little, feeling that 
she had a problem to cope with. The 
lonely child was living too much in a world 
of dreams. ^‘I’ll speak to Elizabeth,” the 
mother mused, thankful that she had Eliza- 
beth’s wise young head and Ruth’s willing 
hands to rely upon. The older pair must 
take little Harvie more into their hearts. 
“What on earth would I do without my 
girls to help me!” 

Both girls were spending the day in 


150 


THE GIRLS OF 


Emerald, with Cousin Hannah Pratt, who 
— ^now that Maudie was away in Chicago, 
studying music, and Mr. Pratt up in Wyo- 
ming with a herd of fattening cattle — ^was 
very lonely, and begged earnestly for some 
of the Spooners to come in whenever it was 
possible, and keep her company. 

When the affair of the ring occurred, Mrs. 
Pratt for once found it in her heart to give 
her adored daughter some much needed 
plain speech, declaring that she was thor- 
oughly ashamed of the way Maudie had 
treated her cousin, and insisting upon tak- 
ing the girl out to the Silver Spur, to apolo- 
gize to Ruth — a deed that was very un- 
graciously done. 

Mr. Pratt went even farther, for he took 
the ring into his own keeping, depositing it 
in the bank with his papers, and declaring 
that it should stay there until Maudie 
learned to value the truth more than dia- 
monds. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


151 


Still, from that very day Cousin Hannah 
began to put by a little money every week, 
with the view in end of gratifying Maudie's 
wish to study music. Grandma Pratt added 
to this fund till at last there was enough, 
and with high hopes Maudie had gone to 
Chicago, quite sure of becoming a world- 
famous musician. 

Elizabeth and Ruth returned rather late, 
as they had waited for the last mail, which 
came in the afternoon. Mrs. Spooner heard 
their merry young voices down at the corral 
as she moved about the kitchen, getting 
the early supper ready. Soon they came 
hurrying in at the back door, their arms 
laden with bundles, followed by the Babe, 
now wide-eyed and alert; knights and pay- 
nims had faded away before the present-day 
delights of a box of candy the girls had 
brought her — ^an extravagance for which 
their mother could not find it in her heart 


152 


THE GIRLS OF 


to scold them, knowing that, next to her 
books, the Babe loved sweets. 

“I declare you’ve gone and got supper 
ready — ^you bad mammy!” scolded Ruth, 
“didn’t you know your big daughters would 
be back in time to save you from such extra 
work?” 

“Yes, and you must stop right now and 
go out on the porch, where there’s still 
light from the afterglow, and read your 
letters — ^two of ’em, and from the folks you 
love best — ^father and Mary.” Elizabeth 
fished the letters from the mail-pouch at her 
side. “And we’ve got a heap of mail — 
magazines, and a letter from home for Roy, 
that pamphlet on photography that I sent 
for, and the new films and developer. Ruth 
had a letter from father, too. He’s all 
right, but make haste and let us hear from 
Mary.” 

“And here’s a candied fig for you to eat 
while you’re readin’ your letters, mother,” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


153 


added the Babe, generously, as she held out 
the particular dainty her heart loved best. 
^‘Now I’ll go find Jonah and Roy — want 
to give them some of my candy, too.” 

Mrs. Spooner looked rather grave when 
she returned from reading her letters in the 
afterglow of the sununer twilight. Father’s 
well, and sends love, and wants letters more 
than anything in the world, he says he hopes 
we’ll all remember. But Mary — ^the letter’s 
from John — ^is not so well — Mrs. 
Spooner’s voice trembled a little — “ he sends 
me a check, and begs that I’ll go out and 
spend a few weeks with her. But how in 
the world can I leave you all?” 

“Mary not well?” Elizabeth’s tones were 
filled with anxiety — “O, Mother, you must 
go we’ll get on somehow. If Mr. Bellamy 
sent a check for you to pay your way, 
there’s nothing at all to prevent.” 

“We can go in and stay with Cousin 
Hannah,” put in Ruth, “she needs us. 


154 


THE GIRLS OF 


really — she hasn’t got a cook, and there 
are so many boarders that we’d be a great 
help, I know. 

“Yes, you would — and I think it would 
do you both good, being in the village a 
little while. But what about the Babe?” 
asked Mrs. Spooner. “You and Elizabeth 
could help, but she would only be in the 
way. Jonah was just telling me about see- 
ing her out on the range, galloping along 
pretending she was Ivanhoe, or somebody 
else out of her books. I’m afraid the poor 
little thing needs company.” 

“ Take her with you,” suggested Elizabeth 
promptly. “A change would do you both 
a lot of good. Just take enough money 
from that reserve fund in the bank to pay 
her fare, and both of you hustle off just as 
quick as possible. We can get you ready 
by day after to-morrow, easily.” 

This plan, after a little consultation with 
Roy and Jonah, was adopted, and Mrs. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


i55 


Spooner and the delighted Babe set off for 
Oklahoma, while Elizabeth and Ruth, much 
to Cousin Hannah’s delight, went in to 
stay with her. Jonah and Roy — ^who de- 
clared that he was just pining to get a taste 
of Jonah’s boasted cookery, were left alone 
on the ranch. 

Cousin Hannah, who was naturally a 
very loquacious person, had become de- 
cidedly reticent on the subject of Maudie 
and her musical studies, though in thebe- 
ginning the boarders had found the repeated 
and detailed information about the matter 
rather wearisome. Even to Elizabeth and 
Ruth she said little, though more than 
once, they surprised her wiping away tears 
as she went about her work. 

I don’t believe that ungrateful Maudie 
Pratt writes to her mother!” said Ruth, in- 
dignantly. I found Cousin Hannah crying 
in the parlor just now; she said it was 
toothache — ^when I know she has a full set 


156 


THE GIRLS OF 


of ^uppers and unders/ as she calls them. 
You see, she’d forgotten. I believe she was 
crying about Maudie.” 

“Ruth,” said Elizabeth in reply — they 
had been at the Pratts three days, “do you 
remember that a week from to-morrow is 
Cousin Hannah’s birthday?” 

“Why, so it is,” said Ruth, “and she 
hasn’t said a word about it. She always 
used to have a big dinner, didn’t she? I 
know what the trouble is — ^it’s Maudie. 
She can’t bear to have a big birthday dinner 
because Maudie won’t be here. Maybe 
that’s what made her cry.” 

“Yes, because Maudie isn’t here, and be- 
cause she hasn’t heard from her in two 
weeks and is frightened to death about her — 
I just chanced to find that out. Let’s 
make Cousin Hannah get up a big dinner, 
and telegraph an invitation to Maudie. 
The telegraph operator’ll send it for nothing. 
He always gives as much as ten dollars for 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


157 


a birthday present for Cousin Hannah/^ 

'‘A birthday present/^ repeated Ruth. '‘I 
know what she’d like — she told me yester- 
day. Say, Elizabeth, I believe we could 
get one for her, too. The Revingtons are 
going away, and they’d sell theirs cheap, 
rather than ship it east.” 

^^What on earth are you talking about?” 
demanded Elizabeth. 

Big secrets!” exclaimed the younger sister 
exultantly. ^‘Come on and let’s run down 
town to Meeker’s store and see if Roy’s in 
from the ranch, I want to talk to him about 
it. Pretty nearly everybody in town’ll join 
us. Hurry up!” 

The two girls ran down the street, stop- 
ping in at the insurance office to speak to 
little Miss Thorpe, a new boarder of Cousin 
Hannah’s, a stenographer who had recently 
come to Emerald. They went on, cheered 
by this interview, and consulted the station 
agent, who agreed that Mrs. Pratt, who had 


158 


THE GIRLS OF 


made him comfortable for many years, must 
be given a birthday which would raise her 
drooping spirits. 

^‘I’d sure do anything that would bring 
Maudie home, and keep her home,’’ he said, 
rather grimly, ‘‘because I know that’s what 
her ma wants — ^though I’m not so certain 
that it’ll make her or any of the rest of us 
any happier. If we’re all to throw in to- 
gether, for one present you can count on 
me to double the ten dollars if it has to 
come.” 

Roy had joined them by this time, and 
was taking down what he called “sub- 
scriptions” with pencil and paper. As the 
three young folks went out the door Mr. 
Rouse called after them: 

“But you must give us a mighty good 
dinner, Miss Elizabeth. A good dinner 
always goes with a celebration of any kind, 
and to my notion it’s the best part of one. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 159 

So you and Ruth put on your stuydin^ caps, 
and get out your cook-books.’^ 

We’ll promise to give you a good dinner, 
Mr. Rouse,” agreed Ruth, heartily, and 
Elizabeth added: “If you’ll all tell us what 
particular dishes you like best, we’ll try 
to have them, just as a little token of our 
appreciation.” 

This was a happy thought, and it pleased 
the boarders immensely to have such con- 
sideration shown them. Ruth got her own 
pencil and note-book, and gravely made 
entries of each boarder’s favorite dish. It 
was a funny bill-of-fare that she made out: 
Chicken-pie and turnip-greens, potato-pone 
and apple-dumplings, cold-slaw and Waldorf 
salad, and other equally incongruous dishes, 
aU of which were faithfully and painstak- 
ingly prepared by the conscientious little 
cooks, with certain additions of their own, 
making a very palatable “company dinner.” 


]60 


THE GIRLS OF 


Elizabeth sent word to Jonah by Roy; he 
was to come over bright and early on the 
morning of the birthday, bringing along the 
wagon to fetch home the gift for Cousin 
Hannah. 

Many hands, we know, make work easy. 
The week went by swift-footed. If Cousin 
Hannah had heard from Maudie she did not 
mention it, and if the girls had any reply to 
their telegram they were equally reticent. 
The difference was that Mrs. Pratt, in spite 
of the birthday preparations became more 
and more doleful, while the girls went out 
on errands that involved that subscription 
paper of Roy^s, and beamed with joyous 
anticipation. 

The great day came. Ruth and Eliza- 
beth helped till the dinner was all on and 
cooking beautifully, the table set, ready to 
dish up the dinner when the time came, 
then they both disappeared in a very mys- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


161 


terious maimer, leaving Cousin Hannah 
bustling about her kitchen all alone. 

Everything went smoothly till the kettle 
became dry, and she found there was no 
water in the pipes. Calling Elizabeth and 
Ruth repeatedly and finding that they were 
both out. Cousin Hannah decided that she 
would go herseK and see what was the 
matter with the wind-mill, as there was 
nobody else at hand. 

“I know in my mind it’s caught,” she 
muttered, *‘and only needs a tap with a 
hammer to start it a-goin’ again. Well, I 
just got to have water, so I reckon I might’s 
well go try to skin up that ladder.” 

Taking a hammer to loosen the refractory 
sails, she climbed slowly and cautiously up 
the creaking ladder, and soon had the water 
fiowing again, as the sails began to work; 
they had needed only a slight jat to loosen 
them. 


162 


THE GIRLS OF 


On top of the ladder she paused, and 
looked wonderingly over the vast plains that 
surrounded Emerald. 

“ My me ! I ain’t had such a good look at 
the country since I used to live in the foot- 
hills,” she exclaimed. feel like I was 
standin’ on top of one of ’em now, viewin’ 
the scenery. O, pity on me — what is that!” 

With a gasp of horror she clung to the 
ladder, her eyes fixed on the object that had 
attracted her startled attention. It was a 
wagon driven by a man whom she recognized 
as Jonah Bean, and containing something 
long, and black and shiny — & box-like object 
that made her heart grow cold to look upon. 
She got a mere glimpse since a horse-blanket 
had been thrown over it, evidently for the 
purpose of concealment — as if anything 
could hide that awful shiny black box: 

The wagon was coming slowly — ^very 
slowly, up the road toward her house, and 
walking beside and around it was a group 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


163 


of young people whom she knew for her own 
household — ^Elizabeth and Ruth, and some 
of the younger of her boarders, with Roy 
and one or two other boys from the neigh- 
borhood. They seemed excited, and had 
apparently one stranger with them, since 
she could see an unfamiliar dress of vivid 
plaid on the other side of the wagon. 

^‘0 me! 0 my!’^ moaned the poor woman, 
as she started hurriedly to descend from her 
high perch. “ I ain’t heard one blessed word 
from her in a month! And I thought she 
was just too careless to write to me: My 
poor, poor girl!” 

Near the bottom, one of the rungs broke 
under the weight of her foot, and she barely 
saved herself from a dangerous fall by cling- 
ing with both hands and drawing up her 
foot to the rung above. 

Sitting thus she waited for them to come; 
her eyes shut because she did not want to 
see, drawing her breath in heavy, muffled 


164 


THE GIRLS OF 


sobs, praying for strength to bear the blow 
that was coming, trying to find courage to 
look upon that grewsome, shiny black box 
when the time arrived. 

The wagon drew up in front of the house, 
but Roy and Elizabeth came creeping softly 
round to the kitchen. Cousin Hannah could 
hear them whispering: 

‘‘Let’s find out exactly where she is, so’s 
we can get it in without her knowing — it 
might frighten her.” How heartless the 
best of young people were! 

“Children,” quavered poor Cousin Han- 
nah from the ladder, “come and help me 
down — know what you’re bringing — saw 
it away off — and I knew right away — ^how 
could I help knowing!” 

“0, did you!” exclaimed Roy and Eliza- 
beth, dejectedly. They stopped below and 
stared up. “That’s too bad. We’re so 
sorry. Cousin Hannah. We tried our best 
to get it in before you saw what it was.” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


165 


^^What difference does that make?” 
moaned Cousin Hannah — ^Roy and Eliza- 
beth thought she must have sprained her 
foot, and the pain made her groan — ^‘take 
me to her — ^my poor, poor child! You 
shan’t call her it!” 

Roy and Elizabeth laughed rather sheep- 
ishly, and Mrs. Pratt glared at them. Had 
they no feelings! 

^‘How on earth did you find out?” asked 
the mystified young people, as they helped 
her down and supported her between them 
into the house. 

They steered her straight for the parlor, 
where a crowd stood around the black box. 

^‘Am I to break the news?” asked Mr. 
Rouse. But instead of the serious mien 
proper to such an occasion he was smiling 
broadly. 


















SILVER SPUR RANCH 


167 


Chapter VII 
The Wire Clipper 

The conclusion of that matter at Cousin 
Hannah Pratt’s, left a very warm feeling be- 
tween the two families, for when Mr. Rouse 
moved aside from the black box it was dis- 
covered to be an old-fashioned square piano, 
now set proudly on its legs, and seated at 
the stool in front of it, her lips parted ready 
to burst into song — ^was Maudie Pratt. 

Her mother’s astonishment and rapture 
pretty nearly scared the doners of the piano 
to death, for they had cherished no inten- 
tions of giving Cousin Hannah a fright with 
their mysterious preparations. Maudie had 
simply been ill, homesick, and afraid to come 
back until she got the telegram the girls 
sent. Putting her at the piano was an 


168 


THE GIRLS OF 


afterthought, and one which some of them 
regretted, since she sang all afternoon, and 
had to be dragged away for the birthday 
dinner. However, that being an example 
of Ruth’s very best skill, helped out by 
Elizabeth, they had an extremely jolly 
time, and went home with promises of 
friendship that were astonishing. 

*‘If you ever need anything from me, re- 
member my heart and my home are open 
to you,” Cousin Hannah kept repeating as 
she waved to them from the steps. 

They had little idea how soon they should 
be in bitter trouble when they needed as- 
sistance from anybody that would offer it. 
Of course it was a dry year — ^Jonah Bean 
declared that it was, taking it by and large, 
the worst all-roimd year he had ever wit- 
nessed in the state of Texas — and he had 
seen a main of ’em! 

Mrs. Spooner and the Babe after spending 
a month in Oklahoma were back again, and 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


169 


all that was left of the Spooner family at 
home once more. The Babe had greatly 
enjoyed this, her first railroad trip, and she 
was kept busy for weeks relating her exper- 
iences. Mary was well again, and had 
promised to come in the winter and make 
a long visit when, they all hoped and 
prayed, their father would be at home with 
them. 

It was a thing they hardly dared own, 
even to themselves, but everybody was be- 
ginning to feel worried about Mr. Spooner^s 
safety, for there had come news of a battle 
fought in Cuba, and though all the papers 
were filled with the details, no letter had 
been received from him. Day after day 
some one rode to the village to bring back 
the mail, and day after day the poor little 
mother, watching and waiting at home, was 
doomed to be disappointed when no letter 
came. 

For the children's sakes she bore up 


170 


THE GIRLS OF 


bravely, always saying with forced cheerful- 
ness that probably Father had been sent 
into the interior, where there was no means 
of mailing a letter — it would be sure to 
come after awhile. But in her own heart 
she entertained a great fear which she never 
breathed to the others — a fear that he might 
be among the missing” after the battle! 
The nameless missing. 

Then there came the day when Harvey 
Grannis, riding over from his distant ranch, 
let his sister know pretty plainly that the 
public shared her fear. 

“No use mincing matters, Jennie,” he 
said, speaking kindly — ^though he could not 
keep an eager note out of his voice. “ We’re 
mighty afraid that poor John won’t come 
back! He never would take my advice, or 
he’d not have been crazy enough to volun- 
teer.” 

Mrs. Spooner sank down on the lounge 
and covered her face, moaning softly. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


171 


^‘Now don’t take on, Jennie,” her brother 
said, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. 
“Just you listen to this proposition I’ve 
come to make to you : I’ve got a big ranch, 
and a big house, and you are all welcome to 
come and live with me. Your girls are 
growing up wild, anyway, without a man 
to overlook ’em. Of course you know, good 
and well, that I hold a mortgage on this 
ranch of yours, and the interest money ain’t 
been paid for some time, either. But that’s 
neither here nor there. The question is, 
now that John’s gone, will you all come over 
and let me take care of you?” 

A shiver went over the little woman on 
the lounge, but she dropped her hands from 
before her eyes, and faced the situation 
bravely. 

“You’re good to offer us a home, 
Harvey,” she said, when she could command 
her voice; “but I can’t bear to think of 
moving till — ^till I feel sure John’s not com- 


172 


THE GIRLS OF 


ing back! I’m hoping every day to have 
news from him; I’m certain that the chil- 
dren wouldn’t want to leave the home. 
Thank you, Harvey, but we’ll stay right 
where we are, for the present, anyhow.” 

Then the storm burst — so angrily loud 
that Elizabeth and Ruth sitting in the back 
room heard every word. 

“Don’t you think for one minute,” 
blustered Harvey, “that you can depend 
on me to support you on this ranch: You 
needn’t keep an old fool like Jonah Bean 
and a young horse-thief like Roy Lambert 
hanging round, and expect a man who 
knows his business to spend one cent for 
you. Such fellows as that are good for 
nothing but to run you and your ranch to 
rack and ruin. No, ma’am! You’ve got 
to come to my house, or you needn’t expect 
me to take care of you.” 

“I never asked you to take care of us, 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 173 

Harvey,” returned Mrs. Spooner with spirit, 
^‘I never thought of such a thing!” 

Elizabeth, in the back room, looked at 
Ruth. “I just can’t stand it any longer!” 
she whispered indignantly, “let’s go to 
mother.” And they marched into the 
room, hand in hand. 

“Well, I hope you’ve come to persuade 
your mother to hsten to reason,” grunted 
their uncle, as the two girls entered the little 
parlor. 

“We’ve come to tell her that we’ll take 
care of her Uncle Harvey. And you’ve no 
right to suppose that father won’t come 
back!” burst out Ruth impetuously. 

Elizabeth added in a milder tone: “We 
don’t need any help, really. Uncle Harvey — 
we’re quite able to take care of mother. 
We thank you for offering us a home, but 
we don’t need it. We’ve got one — and we 
mean to keep it, and support ourselves.” 


174 


THE GIRLS OF 


Harvey Grannis gave the newcomers a 
long look. Elizabeth said he tried to “ stare 
them down.” 

“Support yourselves, hey?” he grunted. 
“Well — wash my hands of the whole 
bunch!” 

He got as far as the door, marching very 
slowly, and expecting to be called back, 
when Mrs. Spooner hurried after him, her 
hands held out. The girls were wrathful 
and disappointed, but their mother’s first 
words brought them comfort. 

“Good-bye then, Harvey,” said Mrs. 
Spooner kindly. “But we won’t part in 
anger. The girls didn’t mean to offend 
you. I’m sure we’ll get along all right.” 

“Didn’t mean to offend?” snorted the now 
enraged ranchman. “WeU they done so, 
mighty easy! If they get along half as 
well making a living as they do at being 
impudent to their elders they’ll have no 
need of help.” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


175 


“Now, now,” soothed Mrs. Spooner, as 
she took her brother’s hand and raised her 
small, tired face for his good-bye kiss. “ My 
girls are just high-spirited, Harvey — ^and 
you ought to be the last to complain of 
thatr 

Harvey Grannis kissed his sister grudg- 
ingly — and then was angrier than ever be- 
cause he had done this apparently gracious 
act. The girls, nodded to them as a gentle 
hint, made no effort towards bidding him 
farewell. 

“Let them alone,” complained Harvey, 
“they’re fixing it up that I’m an old brute 
and they’re persecuted angels. Let ’em 
have their way. We’ll see what comes of 
it — ^you needn’t expect me to care what 
happens after this!” 

The very explosiveness of his protest 
showed how much he did care. In point of 
fact his sister and her family were all he 
had, and at heart he was very fond of them 


176 


THE GIRLS OF 


— ^not the least of Elizabeth. Mrs. Spooner 
always looked to hear him make some al- 
lusion to her alien birth, but he never did. 
He had longed to have these bright, brave 
young creatures and his only sister in his 
home, to feel that they belonged to him, that 
they were dependent on him. It might 
not have been a very pleasant life for them, 
but it was what he longed for, and what he 
gave up with anger and reluctance. 

Down at the road gate he met the Babe, 
riding on her pony. Queen Berengaria. 

^‘0, Uncle Harvey, I’m so glad you’ve 
come ! ” chirped the child, joyously. Ain’t 
you going to spend the day? It’s been the 
longest time since you’ve come, and we all 
want to see you so bad. ” 

Harvey Grannis’s eyes softened; in his 
own rough way he loved the child very 
much; she was named for him, and, unlike 
the other girls, she was not the least bit 
afraid of him. How he would have loved 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


177 


to have his little namesake niece to ride 
about with him over his own ranch! 

*‘Glad to see your old uncle, are you 
Harvie? Well, I can’t say the rest of ’em 
felt that way about it! You’re a fine little 
girl, and I’d like to have you where I could 
keep an eye on you.” He sighed regret- 
fully. No, I ain’t going to spend the day 
this time — ^maybe some other day. And 
say, Harvie, don’t you^let ’em talk you into 
hating your old uncle, ” earnestly. 

‘‘Why, no Uncle Harvey, “course not,” 
agreed the Babe, wonderingly. “ But there 
don’t anybody at our house hate you. 
Please come on back, and Ruth’ll make a 
cake for dinner. ” 

Harvey Grannis declined to accept this 
hospitable invitation, knowing better than 
the child that he had made himself unwel- 
come. 

“I’ve got to go now, honey,” he said. 


178 


THE GIRLS OF 


“You can give a message to your mother 
for me.” He looked at his namesake a 
long time. “Harvie,” he wheedled, and 
nobody would have guessed that his voice 
could be so soft and pleading, “wouldn’t 
you like to come over to the Circle G and 
live? ” 

Little Harvie looked doubtful. 

“Do mother and the girls want to go? 
What’ll father think of it when he gets 
home?” 

Grannis had not the heart say to her, as 
he had said freely to the others, that they 
must give up hope of John Spooner’s re- 
turn. Instead he offered a bait which he 
thought would take her mind from the two 
questions she had asked. 

“I’d give you the prettiest little cutting- 
pony you ever looked at, a pinto with blue 
eyes. That old skate you’re on isn’t fit 
for you to ride.” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


179 


The Babers own blue eyes filled with 
tears. 

Queen Berengaria isn’t very beautiful,” 
she admitted, “but she’s awful good!’* 
Grannis, with that lack of sympathy 
which his type of man shows for the tender 
sensibilities of a child, burst out laughing. 

“You just say that because she’s the best 
you can get,” he surmised, smilingly. “If 
I had you over at the Circle G to be my 
little girl, we’d shoot this old bag of bones 
and give you something that could go. ” 
Old bag of bones! Shoot Qu6en Beren- 
garia! Harvey Grannis never knew that 
then and there he settled the question as 
to his namesake’s ever agreeing, so long as 
she could fight the question, to set foot on 
the Circle G as a home. 

“Did you say you wanted me to take a 
message to mother?” she asked quietly, 
after a somewhat lengthy pause. 


180 


THE GIRLS OF 


^^Yes/^ said the ranchman. “You just 
tell ’em I said that the big spring’s liable 
to give out — ^and then she’ll maybe think 
different about some things. ” 

Small Harvie repeated the message, her 
clear eyes fixed on her uncle’s face. 

“Now I can say it just like you did,” 
and solemnly she parroted the big man’s 
words, giving quite unconsciously his in- 
tonation, and the threat that was in his 
voice. It appeared that he did not relish 
this, for he put in hastily: 

“Don’t say it cross — ^just say it.” 

“But, Uncle Harvey, even if the spring 
does give out we always water at the big 
water-hole. Nobody ever did know it to 
give out, did they?” 

“ No,” said Harvey Grannis, “that’s why 
I bought the land it’s on. ” 

“And you’d always let us water at the 
big tank, ” concluded the Babe, comfortably. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


181 


“I would if ’twas only you, honey, he’’ 
told her, and his eyes glittered. 

He had said that he bought the land for 
that water-tank, and he might have added : 
“That’s why I wouldn’t sell it to your 
father when he wanted to buy it with Silver 
Spur.” He might have said this, for the 
Silver Spur joined his big pastures, had once, 
in fact, been part of his holding, and when 
John Spooner bought from his brother-in- 
law, Grannis retained the pasture contain- 
ing the tank, saying that he wanted to use 
it for convenience in watering herds when 
he drove them down to the railroad for 
shipping, and that the Spooners could al- 
ways use it anyhow. This was a mere verbal 
arrangement, it did not stand in the deed, 
and when the Babe arrived with her little 
speech and repeated it at the dinner-table 
there was consternation. 

“What on earth can Uncle Harvey 


182 


THE GIRLS OF 


mean? ” asked Ruth indignantly. “ Do you 
suppose he thinks the use of that tank could 
be taken away from us?’^ 

“I don’t think he could really be as mean 
as that, Ruth, ” reassured Elizabeth. He’s 
just trying to worry us because of the way 
we spoke. The tank is on his own land, 
you know. ” 

But that the threat was real was proven 
later, when Roy announced that Grannis 
had come with a wagon and men from his 
ranch, and was busy running a wire-fence 
around the water-hole. They were putting 
up a locked gate, so that only by permission 
could anybody have access to it. 

“And the big spring’s just mud,” said 
Roy, gloomily. “I think Harvey Grannis 
is the meanest man in Texas!” 

Mrs. Spooner, pale and worn from anxiety 
about her husband, received the news 
calmly. “ I don’t think there’s anything to 
worry over, ” she soothed the girls ; “ Harvey 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


183 


maybe has some good reason. Remember 
it’s a dry year, and other people may have 
been annoying him. Anyway, I’m sure 
he’ll not forbid us to water our cattle there. 
Please put Shasta to the phaeton, Roy, the 
Babe and I’ll drive down and see about it. ” 
The fence was indeed going rapidly up 
when Mrs. Spooner arrived; Grannis him- 
self was busily directing his men, urging 
haste in his usual stormy manner. 

“Well,” he greeted his sister, “have you 
come to your senses yet — ^you and those un- 
broken colts you’ve got for daughters? You 
see there’s no more water-hole for you to 
depend on. Cattle’ll die, of course. Only 
thing you can do is to drive ’em over to my 
ranch and pack up and come along your- 
selves. If ever a set of young ones need 
disciphne, those two girls do!” 

His eyes snapped fiercely — discipline with 
Harvey Grannis ment punishment. 

“Harvey,” asked his sister, quietly ignor- 


184 


THE GIRLS OF 


ing his attack on her girls, ‘‘aren’t you 
going to give us a key to that gate? ” 

“Give you a key to the gate? Yes, when 
you send me word that you’re packing to 
move over to my ranch. I’m doing this 
for your good. I think you know it, and 
those stiff-necked young’uns could see it 
for themselves if you’d brought ’em up 
right. That’s my last word, and I mean 
it.” 

Turning on his heel he walked rapidly 
away, leaving Mrs. Spooner to return to 
her waiting children 

“Never mind, mother,” soothed the 
Babe, as they drove slowly homeward. 
“Uncle Harvey’s not a bad man — ^he didn’t 
mean sure-enough that our cattle couldn’t 
drink at the water-hole. ” 

But her mother knew otherwise. Harvey 
Grannis intended to force them to live with 
him, for, as has been said, he was really 
fond of his sister and her children. Since 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


185 


he had come to believe John Spooner dead, 
the thought that now he would have them 
all to himself, in his big, comfortable house, 
grew very pleasant, so that he had deter- 
mined, in his usual violent fashion, to useforce 
if necessary to accomplish his purpose. 

^‘I’m sure children I don’t know what 
we’re to do,” Mrs. Spooner sighed, as she 
related the ill success of her errand to the 
family. didn’t dream that Harvey 
could be so hard. ” 

They soothed her with words of cheer, and 
Elizabeth sat beside her as she lay upon the 
lounge, and bathed her mother’s aching 
temples with cool water. 

Never mind, mother,” she whispered, 
“I promise to take care of you — always!” 

Soothed by the magnetic touch of the firm 
young hands, Mrs. Spooner soon dropped 
asleep, and Elizabeth looking on the 
pitifully frail little form, beheld through 
tear-blurred eyes a picture of the past — a 


186 


THE GIRLS OF 


vision of the young mother, delicate and 
burdened with many cares, unselfishly 
adopting into her home and heart the aban- 
doned offspring of strangers — ^the child of 
sordid birth and ignoble poverty! A wave 
of passionate gratitude swept over the girl 
as she looked, and again she breathed a vow 
to always take care of her foster-mother. 

Next day Jonah Bean came galloping up 
to tell them that the wire of the dividing 
fence had been cut in the night, and the 
Spooner cattle had, as usual, satisfied their 
thirst at the water-hole ! Grannis’s cowboys 
had rounded them up and driven them out 
at dawn, and Grannis himself had ordered 
Jonah to come and mend the break, declar- 
ing he had made it. 

I ain’t cut that fence, neither a-mendin’ 
it, ” announced Jonah oracularly. Stands 
to reason the cattle got to drink. Provi- 
dence done it, ^cordin’ to my way o’ think- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


187 


‘^Grannis yelled something over at me, 
but I’m not worrying over it,” declared 
Roy, “it’s the meanest thing I ever knew of. 
I’m certainly not going to prevent the cattle 
drinking when somebody else cut the wires. ” 

The cutting of a wire-fence is in all cattle- 
countries a grave misdemeanor, punishable 
by law. Harvey Grannis,when his “spite- 
fence” had been cut, was of course in a tow- 
ering rage, threatening to prosecute the 
clipper, when caught, and vowing no less 
punishment than the penitentiary if the 
offence was repeated. 

But the next night they were again 
clipped, and the Spooner herd once more re- 
joiced in abundance of water. Harvey Gran- 
nis had trusted to the wire-cutter being 
frightened away by his loud threats, and 
had not set a guard over the fence. Now 
indeed did he swear vengeance against the 
offender — “male or female,” he declared 
fiercely and to further protect the fence 


188 


THE GIRLS OF 


drove a bunch of his own cattle down and 
camped in the pasture — ^he would see that 
no more water was furnished the Spooner 
cattle, or jail the clipper! 

It cannot be said that this move increased 
his popularity with his neighbors when they 
came to know its meaning. Indeed his own 
cowboys muttered indignantly as they moved 
about, pitching their tents and making ready 
for camp, that it was a sin and shame, and 
the boss too pizen mean to live! At the 
same time they could not help admitting 
that it would be much wiser for the Spooner 
family to move over into his comfortable 
house and be taken care of by the wealthy 
ranchman, than to try and struggle along 
combatting poverty and drouth. This 
knowledge served to keep them from open 
revolt, though the means he had taken to 
accomplish his purpose moved them to 
scornful wrath. Brow-beating women and 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 189 

children didn’t agree with the cowboy 
sense of honor. 

With the coming of Grannis’s camp to the 
water-hole pasture the Spooner’s case be- 
came desperate. The well at the house had 
a small basin which filled slowly, and the 
little water it furnished must be saved for 
drinking and household purposes. Jonah 
and Roy reluctantly watered their ponies 
from it, but the big spring their cattle had 
depended on was now only a dry mud-hole. 
Roy went privately to Grannis and asked 
the privilege of hauling water from the big 
tank, i He received for his pains an accusa- 
tion of having cut the fence-wires. This in 
addition of Grannis’s usual name for him 
of horse thief proved so unpleasant that he 
was sorry he went. 

Looks to me like we was at our row’s 
end,” remarked Jonah Bean with gloomy 
philosophy. ^^If they’s a turnin’ p’int I 


190 


THE GIRLS OF 


hain’t seed it. Might^s well sell out, Mis’ 
Spooner, if you kin find a buyer for the 
bunch.” 

“No, no Jonah,” objected Elizabeth 
eagerly. “We’ll find a way. Can’t you 
think of something Roy? ” she asked. 

Roy’s face was sober; he and Jonah had 
discussed the question, and neither one could 
see any other way than to seU the herd be- 
fore they perished of drouth. 

“Nothing except sell,” he said, shaking 
his head soberly. 

“Then Fll find a way!” declared Eliza- 
beth, passionately. “They shan’t be sold 
— ^and they shan’t starve, either. You and 
Jonah round up the bunch and Ruth and I 
will haul water from Munson’s pond — ^it 
never dries up, and I know Mr. Munson 
won’t care. ” 

“0, that will be the very thing 1 Mother, 
please let us, ” begged Ruth, eager to help. 

Really there seemed nothing else to do. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


191 


Elizabeth’s plan though it meant hard 
work, was at least feasible — ^for a time, at 
least; in the meantime something unforseen 
might turn up. 

So, with a big hogshead in the ranch 
wagon they drove five miles to get water, 
which their neighbor Mr. Munson kindly 
let them have. 

always knew Harvey was a cross- 
grained old sinner,” frankly declared Mr. 
Munson. Wants to starve you out, I 
hear, so’s he c’n make you all live with him. 
Well, I don’t think much of his plan. But 
you’re plumb welcome to water — ^long’s you 
hold out to haul it. ” 

For three days they hauled water, staying 
but not satisfying the famishing cattle’s 
thirst; and on one pretext or another Gran- 
nis kept his men in the water-hole pasture. 
The morning of the third day Ruth came 
upon Elizabeth with the wire clippers in her 
hand and a very queer look upon her face — 


192 


THE GIRLS OF 


a look that caused an awful thought to 
flash into the younger sister’s mind. Could 
she — could Elizabeth be the wire-clipper that 
Harvey Grannis was waiting to catch — and 
jail? The thing was impossible, she argued 
fiercely; Elizabeth simply couldn’t do such 
a thing! 

Yet somehow all day she felt an uneasy 
sense that more trouble was brewing, and 
that night after their early supper when she 
could not find Elizabeth anywhere, terror 
seized her, and without letting anybody 
know, she ran wildly across the pastures 
by the short cut, to search for her. 

It was a wonderful velvet-black summer 
night, the skies star-sprinkled and the en- 
emy’s camp lighted by a great central cook- 
fire that could be seen far in that flat, plains- 
country. Flickering lanterns moved about 
it. Ruth ran on, seeking Elizabeth where 
the former cuttings had been, and praying 
that she would not find her there. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


193 


Halfway across she met Roy coming back 
from a secret survey of Grannis’s camp. 
With panting breath she gasped out her 
story. Somebody must find Elizabeth! 

“I will/^ said Roy quietly,” I think I 
know where she is. You go back to the 
house, Ruth — ^I’U find her.” 

He turned back in the direction of the 
camp and Ruth walked slowly to the house, 
meeting her mother and Jonah, who were 
driving down the avenue in the phaeton. 

“O, mother!” whispered Ruth anxiously. 
“Where are you going in the dark? Who 
are you looking for? ” 

“Hush!” warned her mother. “I’m not 
looking for anyone. Whydoyouask? I’mgo- 
ing to your Uncle Harvey’s camp. I thought 
you were all in your rooms — 1 didn’t want 
Elizabeth to know, and I just can’t stand 
this any longer. I think, if he’s made to 
see things right, that he’ll give us a key to 
that gate, as he ought to, and leave us in 


194 


THE GIRLS OF 


peace. You run in the house and go to bed 
— and don’t let Elizabeth know. ” 

goodness gracious! Whatever shall 
I do?” moaned poor Ruth, as she watched 
her mother and Jonah drive away. May- 
be Roy won’t be in time, and while Mother’s 
right there, begging Uncle Harvey to go 
home they’ll catch Elizabeth and bring her 
before them all! It would just about kill 
mother. I can’t stay here — just can’t!” 

Forgetful of the Babe left alone in the 
dark, Ruth darted away on the trail of Roy 
and Elizabeth. 

Supper was over at the camp when Mrs. 
Spooner and Jonah reached it. The cow- 
boys scattered about on the grass, smoked, 
or played cards or read old newspapers by 
the light of the cook-fire. Harvey Grannis 
sat on a camp stool before his tent and 
smoked a pipe which was anything but a pipe 
of peace. He was angry with his cowboys 
who took no pains to conceal their dis- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


195 


approval of his high-handed proceedings 
with the Spooners because they would not 
yield, but most important of all, he was 
angry with himself, because he knew in his 
heart he was behaving in a most contempti- 
ble way. 

The gate towards the road was not locked, 
nor even shut. Jonah drove through it and 
was in the middle of the camp before Gran- 
nis noticed his arrival. 

“Can I speak to you privately, Harvey?’’ 
asked his sister, as he arose and came for- 
ward to greet her. 

“No, ma’am,” he answered with em- 
phatic loudness. “Say your say — ^Every- 
body’s welcome to hear it. I’ve done noth- 
ing I’m ashamed of. ” 

The indignant blood rushed to Mrs. 
Spooner’s pale face. She had no wish to 
make a scene. She pushed aside the rug 
and stepped quietly from her phaeton. 
Jonah held the lines over Shasta, looking 


196 


THE GIRLS OF 


straight ahead of him. The circle of cow- 
boys drew closer, listening curiously, eager- 
ly, most of them with angry distaste, yet 
hopeful that the little woman would speak 
up to their boss. 

And she did. She told him pretty plainly 
what she thought of his behavior. She 
began with the sale of the ranch to John 
Spooner and the verbal agreement concern- 
ing the use of this tank or water-hole which 
had never in the memory of man gone dry. 
Her voice faltered when she spoke of her 
husband’s absence and danger, the doubt 
which Harvey had expressed of his brother- 
in-law’s ever returning to his family. She 
mentioned the conduct of her daughters as 
highly creditable to them. 

At this point Harvey, enraged by being 
reproved when he fully expected entreaties, 
broke in. 

‘‘Well, those same high-spirited girls of 
yours have been cutting wires, ma’am — and 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


197 


wire-cutting is a penitentiary offense. Jake 
over there, saw a girl snooping along the 
fence and bending over working at it, and 
when he got down there three wires were 
clipped in two, and swinging. That’s the 
way your girls show their high-spirit!’^ 

don’t believe it!” exclaimed Mrs. 
Spooner indignantly. Neither Ruth nor 
Ehzabeth would do such a thing. They 
fully understand that it’s a crime before the 
law — ^though surely what you are doing, 
Harvey, is a crime before Heaven. Maybe 
you think I cut the wires?” 

^‘No, no, Jennie,” began Harvey, some- 
what abashed, yet still thoroughly angry. 
^‘You hold on and I’ll catch the minx in 
the act — ^we’ve got three men hidden down 
by the fence now — ^Here they come!” 

There was a stir off in the darkness where 
the fence cutting had been. Mrs. Spooner 
put her hand to her heart and gasped, pray- 
ing silently that neither of her girls had been 


198 


THE GIRLS OF 


driven into reckless reprisals. She had 
talked to them about it, again and again 
as she did to Roy, begging them to remember 
that two wrongs never made a right. Then 
she turned away and hid her eyes against 
the phaeton edge. 

^‘Sufferin’ Moses! groaned Jonah Bean. 

For Elizabeth Spooner, Ruth Spooner and 
Roy Lambert were being hustled into the 
circle of light by two eager cowboys. 

“We caught your wire-clipper, boss,” 
they sniggered jeeringly. “Caught ’er in 
the act! We’ll all stand by you when you 
fix to send her off to jail!” 

“Elizabeth — ^my child! How could you?” 
wailed Mrs. Spooner. 

“You see — told you!” broke in Grannis, 
speaking loud to cover his dismay. 

“0, I didn’t cut the wires,” said Eliza- 
beth composedly, adding in her clear tones, 
“I didn’t^ — ^neither did Ruth or Roy. But 
we got there just as they caught the wire- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


199 


clipper, and we came along to see how Uncle 
Harvey likes his work. Look, Uncle Har- 
vey 

And she drew aside to reveal the clipper. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


201 


Chapter VIII 
A Partner of the Sun 

It took Harvey Grannis a long time to 
live down that scene by the camp fire; for 
when Elizabeth drew aside there stood re- 
vealed, clinging to her skirts, a pair of wire- 
clippers clutched in her free hand — ^the Babe. 
Harvey Grannis stared incredulously for a 
full minute, and everybody stared at him. 
Then he turned away with an inarticulate 
exclamation that was like a groan. 

^‘0, Uncle Harvey!’^ cried the Babe, 
rushing forward at the sound of his voice, 
clasping his knees, bumping him with the 
wire-clippers, looking up at him, her face 
streaming with tears. 

“ It wasn’t this child, ” he declared fiercely, 
catching her up in his arms and glaring 


202 


THE GIRLS OF 


across her head at the others. “The rest 
of you are puttin^ it on her — of if her poor 
little hands done the work, you all egged her 
on and made her do it. ” 

“No they didn’t,” declared the child, 
squirming free and getting to her feet, her 
real courage coming to her aid and sweeping 
away the nervous fright that had possessed 
her. “ I cut the wire that first night — and 
then I cut it the next night, because the 
cows were thirsty, and I knew you wouldn’t 
be mad after all — ^you were just making be- 
lieve, weren’t you. Uncle Harvey?” 

She turned confidentially to him, and the 
big man looked exceedingly foolish. The 
tension of the scene slackened a bit, and one 
or two of the cowboys snickered. But Mrs. 
Spooner’s face was stem as she came forward 
and took her little girl by the hand. 

“You see, Harvey, why I don’t want to 
come and live in your house,” she said 
clearly and distinctly. “ Perhaps you under- 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


203 


stand now why I’m not willing that you 
should have a chance to discipline my girls. 
Look what you drive people into!” 

Her glance went fleetingly to Roy, and 
everybody in the cow-camp remembered 
how Grannis’s ideas of discipline had made a 
sort of horse thief out of a very honest lad. 

^‘This child’s a minor,” began Grannis, 
sulkily. “ She’s not to blame. If you have 
a mind to let her come and live with me — 
even part of the time — ^I’U give her the key 
to the gate. What do you say? ” 

Mrs. Spooner looked at her little girl’s 
face and read the terror and distaste in it. 

^‘Please, O, please don’t, mother!” came 
the imploring whisper. The Babe had vis- 
ions of Queen Berengaria slain and herself 
set to careering about on a strange pinto 
that she could never love — ^and yet expected 
to be thankful for the change! 

‘‘I say that you’ve proved yourself as 


204 


THE GIRLS OF 


hard as usual, Harvey,” Mrs. Spooner re- 
turned quietly. I couldn’t spare my baby 
— even if she were willing to go. Why can’t 
you be contented with the children loving 
and respecting you — and staying independ- 
ently in their own home?” 

The defeat was too pubhc. Grannis 
would not accept it. 

“All right,” he growled. “That gate’s 
locked from this on — and you can get along 
the best way you know how for all of me. 
It’s lucky it wasn’t one of your older girls 
that played this trick — or one of the men 
you employ. You’ve got off easy.” 

The Spooner party went home in despair. 
The Babe showed unexpected spirit and 
demanded that, as she had cut the wires, 
the cattle be allowed to go in and water 
that night. They were. Nobody inter- 
fered with Ruth and Elizabeth when they 
hauled three hogsheads of water the next 
morning while Grannis’s force was breaking 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


205 


camp and before they had mended the fence. 

But that was the end of everything. 
There was no news from Cuba, and Mrs. 
Spooner began to look about her for some 
way to dispose of the cattle. It was the 
next week, in the midst of her perplexities, 
that Harvey Grannis rode up to the ranch 
to warn them that he intended to foreclose 
his mortgage on the place at once. 

I’m doing it for your own good, Jennie, ” 
he argued. ^‘I’U stiU hold to my offer to 
give you all a home. Common sense ought 
to tell you it will be a sight better to live at 
the Circle G and have a man to look after 
you than to stay here and starve, depending 
on a jail-bird, an old fool and a couple of 
feather-headed girls. When do you think 
you’ll be ready to move? ” 

^^I must consult my girls first, Harvey,” 
said Mrs. Spooner quietly. ^^They are 
down at the corral — I’ll call them at once. 
I have a dreadful headache this morning. 


206 


THE GIRLS OF 


and when I’ve explained the situation to 
them I’ll go and lie down. They can answer 
your questions as well as I. ” 

Her brother fumed a good deal at this, 
vowing that he wouldn’t be surprised if she 
felt called upon to consult old Jonah and 
the jail-bird! 

certainly do intend to consult them,” 
replied his sister mildly. ^‘Only just now 
they are out hauling water from Munson’s 
pond. But the girls’ll be here in a minute 
— ^I will do as we all think best. ” 

Elizabeth and Ruth felt their hearts sink 
at sight of their uncle, certain that his com- 
ing meant some new disaster. He couldn’t 
bring anything else!” they thought indig- 
nantly. 

Mrs. Spooner, warning Grannis to silence, 
explained his proposition to the girls very 
clearly and calmly; she wished them to see it 
as favorably as possible, for in her heart she 
could think of nothing better — ^there seemed 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


207 


to be no other alternative; it seemed they 
must live with Harvey, hard as it would be. 
When she had finished she went to lie 
down. 

Ruth looked at Elizabeth for counsel as 
her mother left the room. If there was any 
other way, she was sure that Elizabeth 
would find it. 

‘‘We’U agree to give up the ranch at 
once,” began Elizabeth. 

^‘You’ll have to,” interrupted Harvey 
Grannis. ‘‘Those are the terms of the 
mortgage. I could put you out to-day, but 
I’ll give you time to pack. ” 

“With the privilege of making our pay- 
ment when father comes home. Are you 
willing to do that. Uncle Harvey?” Eliza- 
beth finished. 

Grannis agreed promptly to this, certain 
now that he would have his own way with 
the family. 


208 THE GIRLS OF 

“Then we’ll move next week,” decided 
Elizabeth. 

“ I’ll send my teams over for your things 
— ^Monday, say?” asked Grannis, in high 
satisfaction. 

“0, no,” Elizabeth demurred, “there’ll 
be no need to bother you. Jonah and Roy 
can move us without any help. Thank 
you, just the same. ” 

“ Jonah and Roy, is it? ” snorted Grannis. 
“Well, I told your mother, and I tell you, 
that I won’t have that young horse-thief 
on my place. The teams will be here Mon- 
day. See that you’re ready when they 
come. ” 

“But we aren’t going to the Circle G, 
Uncle Harvey,” said Elizabeth, mildly. 

Grannis was in the doorway, he turned, 
his look of surprise and dismay was almost 
comical. 

“Where are you going, then? Straight to 
destruction, I suppose. And dragging your 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


209 


poor sick mother with you. I want a word 
with Jennie about this. ” 

^‘Mother has allowed me to speak for 
her/^ Elizabeth said. “Ruth and I are 
going to take care of her. We can — ^you 
know we can. ” 

She spoke with assurance, but she had as 
little idea how the thing was to be accom- 
plished as Ruth had when she offered to 
pay Maudie Pratt a hundred dollars — 
with only thirty-five cents at home in her 
pasteboard box! Perhaps the memory of 
the triumphant conclusion that matter 
worked up to, put confidence in Elizabeth’s 
voice. Anyway, Harvey Grannis went 
storming away, informing nobody in par- 
ticular that his sister’s family were an un- 
grateful lot, declaring that he had washed 
his hands of them — ^all except little Harvie. 

That night when the chores were over and 
supper ended, the Silver Spur household 
gathered on the porch and resolved itself 


210 


THE GIRLS OF 


into a committee of ways and means, with 
Elizabeth holding the floor. 

“ I Ve been thinking of a plan, she said 
cheerfully. ^‘As Ruth claims, IVe a head 
on my shoulders — ^whether there’s anything 
in the head, or the plan, is for the rest of 
you to decide. ” 

have a great deal of confidence in your 
ability and common-sense, daughter,” said 
Mrs. Spooner faintly from her rocker. Her 
head was better, but it left her spent and 
white. 

^‘Your scheme’ll be a good one — ^I’llback 
it, ” Roy followed. 

^^Of course — ^we’ll all back what Eliza- 
beth says,” agreed Ruth. 

’Cause Elizabeth knows, ” chimed in the 
Babe, loyally. 

^‘Well, she ain’t so foolish — ^for a gal,” 
old Jonah put in last. 

Elizabeth was fairly overwhelmed by 
their trust in her. ^‘You see we can’t 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


211 


stay here, and we wonH go to the Circle G, 
^‘she began, flushed with her family's 
praise, ^^of course we may hear from father 
any day, but we'd have had to get rid of the 
cattle — anyhow that bunch Uncle Harvey 
shut out from the tank. It seems to me 
the best thing we can do is to go into Emer- 
ald to live. There isn't a sign of a photo- 
grapher in the place; everybody says my 
work is worth paying for, and Ruth would 
have a chance of earning something. Be- 
sides, there'd be school for the Babe, and 
we'd be near Cousin Hannah. " 

Say, don't think you're the only worker 
in this family hive!" protested Roy," I 
haven't a profession, but I can get a job any 
day. Mr. Pell's son Joe has gone away to 
school, and he needs a clerk in the grocery 
the worst kind. I reckon I'll earn money 
enough to pay rent, and a little bit over. " 

^‘They's jobs a-waitin' for young folks to 
pick up, but 'tain't easy when you're gettin' 


212 


THE GIRLS OF 


on in years,” sighed Jonah, dolefully. 
“ Nothin’ I kin do in town, I reckon. May- 
be the Old Soldiers’ Home’ll take keer o’ 
me.” 

There was a chorus of indignant protests 
from the whole family. Jonah knew they 
couldn’t get along without him! Wherever 
they went he should go to — ^that was settled. 
The tender-hearted Babe, with her arms 
around the old man’s neck, cheered him fur- 
ther by adding: ^‘Me’n you’ll help mother, 
Jonah — she’ll need us. ” 

Bless your heart, honey, if that ain’t 
the gospel truth!” agreed Jonah, now quite 
cheerful. ^‘They’s a gyarden to make, an’ 
a cow to milk — ^we can’t get along without 
one, and wood to chop. Maybe the ole 
man will earn his salt, after all. ” 

Early the next morning after this decis- 
ion Elizabeth and Ruth rode into town to 
see about getting a house. The only vacant 
one in the place was an old adobe, rather 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


213 


dilapidated, but with plenty of room, and 
enough ground fenced in to keep a cow, be- 
sides having the garden and small patches 
they would be obhged to plant for vege- 
tables and cow-feed. It belonged to Mr. 
Rouse, the station agent who boarded with 
Cousin Hannah, and he was so glad of the 
chance of getting it occupied that he told 
the girls if they would agree to make the 
necessary repairs, he would let them have 
it rent-free for the first six months. 

This was joyfuUy agreed to, and the very 
next day Jonah and Roy went to town to 
see about making the repairs — amending the 
roof, putting in window panes, and white- 
washing the interior, so that at last it was 
converted into a very respectable and com- 
fortable habitation — areally more comfort- 
able than the ranch-house, for the adobe 
walls were thick, and would keep out the 
cold in winter and the heat in summer as 
well. 


214 


THE GIRLS OF 


During the days that the men worked on 
the adobe Ruth and Elizabeth were busy 
packing up, while the Babe and her mother 
drove about in the phaeton, making arrange- 
ments for the keeping of the cattle and 
ponies, for Mrs. Spooner determined that 
she would not sell them — ^it would be like 
admitting her husband was dead. 

Mr. Munson, a man with a big ranch and 
a big heart, readily agreed to graze the 
cattle, scoffing at the idea of taking a third 
of the increase for his share, until Mrs. 
Spooner declared that, unless he did, she 
could not allow him to be burdened with 
them. 

‘‘Then I hope for your sake it won’t be 
long, ma’am,” said the rancher heartily. 
No news is good news, I’ve always heard 
say, and there’s no tollin’ when John may 
come. ” 

Another neighbor agreed to graze the 
ponies, and the Babe earnestly begged that 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


215 


he would be very, very kind to Queen 
Berengaria, who was a good pony, if she 
wasn’t so very pretty! 

With everybody w^orking like beavers, it 
was only a few days before the Spooners 
closed the doors of the lonely little ranch- 
house, striving bravely to think that it 
would only be for a little while, and took up 
their abode in the old adobe in Emerald. 

If there had been, just at this time, a 
voting contest for the most unpopular man 
in the district, Harvey Grannis would un- 
doubtedly have won the prize by a big 
majority. Everybody was so indignant at 
his treatment of the Spooners that they 
vied wdth each other in showing their sym- 
pathy and frienship for the family, sending 
them such loads of vegetables from their 
gardens and choice cuts of fresh meat when 
a beef was killed, that it was a long time 
before they had need of anything else; 
while Cousin Hannah came over on the first 


216 THE GIRLS OF 

day, laden with trays of good things for the 
first meal. 

Everybody tried to be very cheerful as 
they gathered around the brightly-lighted 
supper table that evening, eating the good 
things Cousin Hannah had provided with, 
it must be confessed, scant appetite; their 
hearts were full, but each tried bravely to 
see only the bright side, and, because they 
tried so hard, at last became reaUy cheerful, 
discussing their plans for the future with 
some enthusiasm. Only the Babe wiped 
away tears, as she thought of Queen Beren- 
garia out in strange pastures without a soul 
to think of taking her lumps of sugar at 
feeding-time! 

“I’ll plow up the land and sew it down in 
rye for cow-feed,” said Jonah, “before I 
git ready to go to gyardenin’. I got to 
hustle, too, for time’s a-flyin’. 

“I won’t set into work at the store till 
next week,” said Roy, “for I want to fix 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


217 


up that shack out in the yard for a studio — 
with two display windows, if you please, 
one for cakes and one for ‘takes’. A sky- 
light in the roof, and a little curtained-off 
dark room, and there you are, all ready 
for business. Misses Spooner!” 

O, Roy, that will be lovely — simply 
couldn’t get along without you — ^none of us 
could, in fact. And I’m expecting my en- 
larging camera any day. I reckon I’ll spoil 
some pictures before I get used to it; any- 
way, I can experiment on the family first. ” 
“I’m so glad we’ve got a good cook- 
stove, ” said Ruth, contentedly. “ I expect 
to make money on bread. Cousin Hannah 
says she’ll get me all the orders I can fill. ” 
“And what are me’n you going to do, 
mother?” enquired the Babe, with interest. 

“Well, I’m going down town to the store 
tomorrow and buy some pretty gingham for 
cutting out into school dresses which you’re 
to stitch up on the machine, if you’ll try 


218 


THE GIRLS OF 


to run the seams straight. Then, as soon 
as they’re made, we’ll get some school- 
books, and a little girl about your size will 
put on one of the new dresses, take the new 
books in her new book-bag, and go right 
straight to school — ^where she’ll be a credit 
to us all, I’m sure.” 

“I’ll learn to read so good that I’ll be 
able to read all the books in the whole round 
world ! ” sighed the Babe, happy in the prom- 
ised fulfillment of her highest earthly desire. 

By the time the new studio was finished 
Elizabeth had quite a display of photo- 
graphs, having ‘taken’ the family and all the 
neighbors who were handy, finding Maudie 
Pratt a willing and excellent subject, while 
Ruth in her own show-window set forth a 
tempting array of tarts and pies and dough- 
nuts, in token that the bakery was in oper- 
ation. 

Mrs. Pell, the wife of Roy’s employer, 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


219 


was their first customer, bringing her twin 
boys of seven to be photographed. 

Their pa says if anybody can make ’em 
stand still long enough to get a picture, 
they’ll sure deserve a prize,” declared the 
twins’ mother frankly, as she arranged 
Wilfred’s big, smothering collar, and tied 
anew the huge red bow under Wilmot’s 
chin. ‘^1 taken ’em to the finest picture- 
taker in Houston, last summer, and the best 
he could do was a proof that had three 
heads apiece on it!” 

^‘1 think I can manage them, Mrs. Pell,” 
said Elizabeth, confidently, seeing more or- 
ders ahead if she could succeed where the 
city photographer had failed. “They are 
such cute little fellows. Now, boys, if 
you’ll be real quiet I’ll give you a doughnut 
apiece, in just one minute,” she promised 
the squirming twins, who brightened amaz- 
ingly, keeping expectant eyes upon the 


220 THE GIRLS OF 

doughnuts which Elizabeth had placed at 
just the proper elevation. 

They were muffled and choked in stiff 
white pique suits, not a bit comfortable, and 
their mother insisted that they should be 
posed in a very stiff position, with their 
arms about each other. However, in the 
end Elizabeth secured a very good negative, 
‘‘at least it has only one head apiece,” she 
laughed. “But send them over when they 
have on their everyday clothes, and let me 
take a picture for my window, if you don’t 
mind.” 

Mrs. Pell didn’t mind — ^indeed she was 
highly gratified, and she sent Wilfred and 
Wilmot over promptly, as soon as they had 
changed to their old collarless and tieless 
play overalls. Then, while the Babe told 
them a fairy story to excite the proper 
amount of interest in their faces, and Eliza- 
beth bade them eat doughnuts at will, to 
promote happiness that “showed through,” 



‘'Why, It Isn't Addressed to Mother — 
(Silver Spur Ranch) 


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SILVER SPUR RANCH 


221 


she snapped her camera on a most excellent 
likeness — so good, in fact, that their proud 
father ordered a bromide enlargement to 
be made, and advised all his customers to 
go by the studio and see that cute picture 
in the window — ^the cutest thing in the shape 
of a photograph he’d ever seen took. 

Trade increased, and both girls soon had 
all they could do — indeed Mrs. Spooner, 
in her heart, often sighed to think of the 
free young souls doomed to have so much 
work and so little play in their busy lives. 

It was plain from the first that the 
Spooner girls and Roy Lambert could main- 
tain the family, though it took every bit 
of strength and every ounce of energy the 
three young people could bring to bear on 
it. Mrs. Spooner drew a breath of relief 
when one day she saw her brother Harvey 
turn in at the gate and calmly walk across 
to the studio as though he were an ordinary 
customer, coming on an ordinary errand. 


222 


THE GIRLS OF 


nice to him, dear,” she cautioned 
Elizabeth, when she informed her of the 
unexpected customer in the studio. ‘‘I’m 
proud of your independence, but it breaks 
my heart to have you girls working so hard, 
and getting none of the pleasure nor the 
education that you ought to have.” 

“I think we’re getting lots of education, 
if you ask me,” laughed Elizabeth, as she 
put on her business apron and prepared to 
go out. “As for pleasure — never was so 
happy in my life — except for worrying a 
little bit about father — and he may come 
home any day of course, and stop that.'^ 
She ran across the yard to the little build- 
ing, where she found her uncle gravely in- 
specting the photographs in the window, 
having come to a decision as to the style 
he preferred for a dozen cabinet portraits 
of himself, which he announced to be the 
errand that had brought him to Emerald. 
It was to Elizabeth like a little play to 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


223 


keep up her business manner with Uncle 
Harvey all through the sitting. She was 
urbane and impressive. She told about it 
gleefully at the supper table that evening. 

“How much? And when can I have 
^em?” the customer had asked as he arose 
from his sitting. Elizabeth got his tone 
exactly in telling of it. 

“ One doUar down, five dollars when they 
are finished, a week from to-day, I'm pretty 
well rushed with orders, and can’t promise 
them any sooner!” reported the photo- 
grapher to her family. 

“Then he took up his hat, and stood 
twirling it ’round and ’round, as if he in- 
tended to say something else. I suppose 
he changed his mind, for he went away 
without another word. I was glad; I 
wonder what he reaUy wanted. Something 
more than pictures, I’ll bet. Anyway, I 
think I got a good picture.” 

On the day appointed Harvey Grannis 


224 


THE GIRLS OF 


put in an appeamace at the little studio at 
nine o’clock in the morning. He took the 
filled envelope Elizabeth handed him with- 
out a word, paid his money and lingered a 
moment, never looking at the pictures. 

^‘Hadn’t you better see whether you like 
them?” asked Elizabeth. ^^We all think 
them very good. I took the liberty of 
giving mother one, because she liked it so 
much.” 

'‘O, er — ^by the way, how is Jennie?” 
asked Grannis, uneasily. 

*'I’ll call her if you’d like to see her,” 
returned Elizabeth promptly, and there was 
a mischievous light in her eyes. 

“No, no — ^not at all,” stammered the 
ranchman. “That is, I have a little matter 
to talk over later — ^never mind now.” 

They were crossing the side yard between 
the house and the studio. Without waiting 
for further instructions Elizabeth called 
blithely: 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 225 

“Mumsy — ^Uncle Harvey wants to see 
you!’’ 

She was sure that Mrs. Spooner was just 
inside by the window, anxiously waiting 
for what her brother might see fit to say or 
do. The call was responded to with un- 
expected, and so far as Grannis was 
concerned, unwelcome promptness. Mrs. 
Spooner came out on the front porch and 
walked down the steps to greet her brother. 
The Babe, always eager for peace, though 
still shy of the man who had thought of 
shooting Queen Berengaria, followed. Ruth 
advanced from her bakery as the two left 
the studio. Old Jonah came around the 
house, wheeling a barrow, and to complete 
the family picture Roy just then drove up 
in a grocer’s delivery wagon and stopped at 
the curb. 

^‘Well, we all seem to be here,” remarked 
Harvey Grannis, rather feebly. 

A bicycle-mounted boy wheeled up peril- 


226 


THE GIRLS OF 


ously close between the delivery-wagon and 
the gate. Roy turned with a little annoy- 
ance, then he saw that the messenger held 
a yellow envelope in his hand, and was 
approaching Mrs. Spooner. 

The little woman’s breath came in gasps, 
since the ceasing of her Cuban letters she 
was always afraid of the sight of a telegram. 

“Don’t let her have it — I want to say 
something first,” Grannis protested, getting 
between the messenger and his sister. 

“I’ll open it for her — she would want me 
to,” declared Elizabeth, snatching the en- 
velope from the messenger’s hand. 

“Why, it isn’t addressed to mother — ^it’s 
addressed to — io— father!’* And she let 
the yellow envelope flutter to the ground, 
where the messenger regarded it with lack- 
luster eyes, then picked it up and prepared 
to depart with it. 

“Party ain’t living here?” he asked. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 117 

snapping together his receipt book, which 
he had opened for signature. 

^‘This here lady’s his late wife,” asserted 
Jonah, lugubriously, getting things rather 
mixed in his excitement to see what the 
telegram contained. ^^Give it to her — she’s 
the proper person to open it.” 

Once more Grannis put himself between 
the messenger and his sister, protesting 
again that he had something to say before 
she read the message. And, at this second 
protest, there came an unexpected inter- 
ruption. 


/ 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


229 


Chapter IX 
A Rose by Another Name 

In at the gate walked a tall, bronzed 
soldier in khaki, who reached forward an 
authoritative hand, saying calmly to the 
messenger, “Give it to me — ^it’s mine.” 

Everything about them seemed suddenly 
unreal. Mrs. Spooner, catching sight of 
the newcomer, quietly crumpled down in a 
dead faint at his feet! 

Elizabeth found herseK running into the 
house for a glass of water — amoving like a 
person in a dream, making a desperate 
amount of effort without advancing an 
inch. Then, all at once, she was back to 
find her father kneeling on the gravel beside 
his wife, resisting Harvey Grannis’s efforts 
to raise her. 


230 


THE GIRLS OF 


“Keep her head low, Harve — ^never raise 
a fainting person’s head,” he cautioned. 

The Babe was crying and snuggling in 
under her father’s elbow, Roy had rushed 
into the house and brought back the afghan 
from the couch. 

“She’s all right,” said Captain Spooner, 
confidently. “ She’s coming round now. 
What made her faint, do you suppose?” 

“O, Father! Because you came back so 
suddenly, said Ruth. 

“We hadn’t heard from you in months, 
you know,” Elizabeth added in a low tone. 
“We’ve been horribly uneasy, daddy.” 

The captain turned and kissed his tall 
girl, then he slipped a careful arm under his 
wife’s shoulders. Ruth and the Babe, push- 
ing for their share of attention, had to be 
cautioned. 

“Quiet, girls!” he warned. “We’ll lift 
mother in to the couch, and then I’ll count 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 231 

you chickens and see how you look. Help 
me, Harve.” 

Harvey Grannis had been edging away 
with a very curious expression on his face; 
now he had no other course left open but 
to come forward, lift his sister’s limp form 
and assist in carrying her into the house. 
On the way she regained consciousness 
enough to protest lovingly, assuring them 
that she was all right, and ashamed of being 
so silly as to faint. 

Father, why didn’t you telegraph, 
so it wouldn’t have scared mother?” the 
Babe voiced the general wonder. 

did,” said Captain Spooner. ‘‘But 
Mr. Rouse was away on his vacation, and 
the new man they had in the office sent the 
telegram out to the ranch, because it was 
addressed to Silver Spur. You see, I’d got 
no letters, and didn’t know of your moving. 
The boy had it along with one from Harve to 


2S2 


THE GIRLS OF 


me, re-sent from Havana. I’ll read it now.” 
And he tore open the yellow envelope. 

‘^0, Daddy,” begged the Babe, frantically 
trying to smother him. Don’t you ever, 
ever go to war again — ^no matter if that’s a 
telegram from the president for you to go 
back — don’t you do it: And what did you 
bring us from Cuba?” 

‘‘Wait and see, you little rascal,” laughed 
her father, lifting her in his arms, and for- 
getting, for the moment, his telegram. 
“My! What a big girl you are, to be sure! 
And how well you are all looking — except 
mother. We must try and get some roses 
to grow in her cheeks. Jonah, you old 
sinner — shake! We’U swap war stories to 
beat the band, winter evenings out at the 
ranch. And Harve,” slapping Grannis jo- 
vially on the shoulder, “glad to see you, 
too. I’ll read your telegram now. Why in 
the world didn’t you let the folks know long 
ago?” 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


233 


‘‘ I — was a little delayed/’ said Harvey 
nervously. fact, I just came over to- 
day to tell ’em.” 

*‘And the interest money? I suppose 
you got that all right? 0, yes — ^you say 
so in this telegram. Got it right on the dot. 
No chance to act the hard-hearted landlord 
and turn ’em out, hey?” and he laughed 
genially. The world seemed bigger and 
warmer and sweeter to the children, now 
that their father was at home; in the full- 
ness of their joy they had no thought of 
Harvey Grannis and the wrongs he had 
caused them to suffer. 

Their uncle had been nervously turning 
his hat in his hand, going to the door and 
coming back during the greetings between 
the re-united family. It spoke well for his 
courage that he had not made his escape 
unnoticed. 

^‘T — just wanted a chance to speak 
about that, John,” he began, clearing his 


234 


THE GIRLS OF 


throat nervously. “Your check was all 
right, of course, but I haven^t banked it 
yet. In fact, I just came over this morning 
to tell the folks, as I said.’’ 

Elizabeth realized in a flash that Harvey’s 
telegram annoimcing Captain Spooner’s ap- 
proaching arrival had come just before he 
came to order the photographs. He was 
trying them for some decent way of ex- 
plaining his conduct. She remembered his 
peculiar manner, and parted her lips to 
speak when some impulse of kindness made 
her close them again. Harvey Grannis had 
done them all an injury, this was an op- 
portunity for her to forgive an enemy. 
The next moment she had reason to be 
glad. 

“Then you did get the interest money all 
right?” the captain persisted. 

The red blood flamed in Grannis’s tanned 
and bearded face. His confusion was pain- 
ful. 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


235 


'‘O, yes— O, yes, I got that,’' he ad- 
mitted with an entreating glance toward 
his sister. — ^there was something con- 

nected with that that I had intended ex- 
plaining to Jennie. In fact — ^if you’ll let 
me, I’d like to make you a deed to the 
ranch.” 

^‘Let you?” echoed Captain Spooner, his 
keen blue eyes on his brother-in-law’s face. 

Make a deed to the ranch? Why, I only 
sent you the interest money. The last 
payment remains to be met.” 

^‘Yes, I know,” Grannis hurried to say, 
^‘but Jennie’s my only sister, and we had a 
little misunderstanding — she’U tell you all 
about it later, no doubt. I feel myself to 
blame — ^that is, I was mistaken. I’d like 
to make it up to — of course, I know there’s 
some of your family that’ll never forgive 
me.” 

Then Elizabeth did a beautiful thing, 
and one which endeared her to all of them. 


236 


THE GIRLS OF 


She inarched across the room to Grannis, 
put out a slim hand and said: 

‘‘1 hope you don’t mean me, Uncle 
Harvey,” — ^with a very distinct emphasis 
for if I have anything to forgive — ^it’s 
forgotten.” 

Harvey took the girl’s hand with a fervor 
that was pathetic. 

“We mustn’t talk about disagreeable 
things when John’s just got back,” said Mrs. 
Spooner decidedly. “Harvey, you’ll stay 
to dinner. Somebody ought to go for Roy — 
he went right away, without giving John 
a chance to meet him — he wanted us to be 
uninterrupted at our first meeting. I’m 
sure Mr. Pell will let him off for the rest of 
the day, if we ask him.” 

“ I’ll go for him,” offered Harvey, hastily, 
and before the eyes of the astonished 
Spooners, he put his hat on his head and 
walked away in search of Roy — ^the boy he 
had insisted upon regarding as a horse-thief! 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


237 


While he was gone Captain Spooner was 
put in possession of all the facts. He was 
inclined to be indignant over his brother- 
in-law’s conduct, but the girls joined their 
mother in excusing Grannis’s behavior, in- 
sisting that it came from an excess of zeal 
for their welfare. When Harvey and Roy 
returned together, apparently on the best 
of terms. Captain Spooner was ready to let 
by-gones be by-gones with his brother-in- 
law, and to welcome Roy to the family 
circle with heart-felt cordiality. 

^‘IVe heard all about you from mother,” 
he said as he gripped the lad’s hand. “ Only 
she says that he never can make me know 
just what you’ve been to them all, and how 
very proud she is of her adopted son.” 

Roy blushed — ^praise was sweet, but em- 
barrassing. “I bet they didn’t tell you a 
word about their goodness to me, sir,” he 
returned, I never could make that up, no 
matter what I do.” 


238 


THE GIRLS OF 


Everything was satisfactorily explained 
over a good dinner. When you come to 
think of it, a good dinner makes many things 
seem more satisfactory. Ruth and Eliza- 
beth cooked this one, the Babe set the table, 
and all three girls kept jumping up from 
their places to run around and hug the tall 
soldier father, to be sure that he was real, 
and not just a beautiful dream. Mrs. 
Spooner sat at the head of the table, with a 
color and radiance in her face that had long 
been absent. Harvey Grannis talked more 
than anybody had ever heard him. He 
made good his promise of the blue-eyed 
pinto pony to little Harvie — though he 
offered no further suggestion as to the 
shooting of Queen Berengaria. 

^‘Pinto’s half Arab,’’ he urged, “I broke 
him myself — ^wouldn’t let the broncho- 
buster touch him — ^he’s as gentle as a dog.” 

All the elders at the table knew that 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


239 


Harvey Grannis was an excellent horseman, 
and kind to animals, whatever he might 
be to his fellow-men. They regarded the 
gift as highly as the Babe was certain to do 
when she had fully made the acquaintance 
of the spotted pony. 

^^I’m awfully obliged to you. Uncle 
Harvey,” she said at last. “If you don’t 
mind I’ll change his name to Prince — as 
though he was Queen Berengaria’s son, you 
know. I expect I’ll be mighty glad to have 
him, because he’ll be able to carry me to 
school. I couldn’t go when we were at the 
ranch before, because it was ’most too far 
for Queen Berengaria to come every day, 
and she’s so slow I’d have been sure to be 
tardy — ^I don’t like tardy-marks.” 

When Harvey Grannis said good-bye, it 
was plain they were entering on a new era 
of friendship with the lonely man. Ap- 
parently he would be willing to benefit his 


240 


THE GIRLS OF 


sister’s family in the way that pleased them 
— ^not insisting that it should be exclusively 
a way that pleased him. 

When Grannis was gone Roy returned to 
his work at the grocery and the Babe finally 
quieted down to her lessons. Mrs. Spooner 
asked Ruth if she would not help her 
younger sister with them, leaving Elizabeth 
to have a little talk with her father. The 
tall eldest girl followed her mother into the 
other room, and soon found herself seated 
between the two people who were so dear 
to her, the only parents she had ever known. 
Thus she listened to a strange story told 
Captain Spooner by a soldier of his own 
regiment — ^and who had died in Cuba. 

‘‘I don’t remember him much on the way 
out, or in camp, except that he was a very 
tall man, well set up and good-looking — a 
fine type of Englishman,” the Captain said. 
“ He kept himseK to himself, the other men 
said, and although I remembered afterward 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


241 


that he had looked at me curiously once or 
twice, I couldn^t be sure that I’d ever seen 
him before until he spoke to me one day. 
You’d sent me a lot of little snap-shots, 
Elizabeth, and I was showing them to some 
of the officers and mentioned your name. 
I saw him turn, and after awhile he came and 
asked to look at the pictures. I noticed 
then that he didn’t pay much attention to 
any of them but yours, and when he handed 
them back he said hastily that he wanted to 
have a talk with me. He had the reserved 
English way, but I could see that he was 
much upset. The next day we had a pretty 
hot little skirmish, getting some of us for 
good, and wounding a good many. After 
the fight was over they sent for me to go to 
the field hospital, and there he was, wounded 
badly — ^knowing he had to die!” 

Elizabeth was strangely shaken during 
this story, and she held fast to her mother’s 
hand, as though to make sure they were 


242 


THE GIRLS OF 


not giving her up. Instinct told her of 
whom Captain Spooner was speaking, and 
when he went on she needed no further 
explanation. 

“He was an Englishman, sure enough, 
Elizabeth, of good family, but a younger son, 
of course, and without any money. It seems 
he married the daughter of the rector of his 
parish, and she hadn’t anything either. 
They came over to America — ^to Texas — 
thinking to make a fortune, but found hard 
times and bad luck instead. His young 
wife died while they were on their way to 
California, traveling in a wagon, and he 
was so broken-hearted and helpless that he 
left his baby girl with — ^well, he left her 
with a mighty good woman, and I guess he 
knew it!” 

Captain Spooner glanced at his wife; 
Elizabeth dropped her head on her mother’s 
slender shoulder and cried softly. 

“It makes me feel so sorry,” she 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


243 


whispered. “ Yet I’m glad too — ^glad I be- 
long to you, even if my father did desert 
me!” 

^‘He didn’t, Elizabeth. That is, not 
knowingly,” Captain Spooner explained 
gently. ‘‘When he went away from here 
he had promised to send money for your 
keep, and he said he would come back for 
you. He did send some money, then all at 
once it ceased, and we never heard from 
him again. It seems he got word that you 
were dead. Some movers coming through 
told him of a baby that had died, and they 
mixed it up some way. He was sick and 
down on his luck at the time, and failed to 
write to us, but he never would have done 
it if he’d known his daughter was living. 
Philip Maude wasn’t that kind of a man. 
He was a gentleman, bom and bred, and a 
brave man always.” 

“ 0, Father — I love to hear you say that!” 
said Elizabeth. “I’ll always be glad to 


244 


THE GIRLS OF 


think of him as brave and kind. But 
I thought — Cousin Hannah said — ^wasn’t 
the name MvMf” 

^'Mudd? No, indeed. His name was 
Maude — ^M-a-u-d-e. A very good name, 
too. What on earth made you think it 
was Mudd?” 

‘‘Cousin Hannah told me so,” sobbed 
Elizabeth. “And 0, now I can tell you 
when it’s all over — ^I’ve been so bitterly 
ashamed and miserable to know that I, 
who used to really fool myself into thinking 
I was better than other people, was just a 
miserable mover’s child — and that my name 
was Mudd!” 

“Cousin Hannah always did pronounce 
it that way,” said Mrs. Spooner, “she may 
have thought it was spelled so — ^it’s too bad 
to think how you suffered for her mistake.” 
The motherly eyes overflowed, reahzing how 
sensitive Elizabeth, who adored pretty 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 245 

names, must have felt at being saddled with 
such a grotesquely ugly one. 

*‘So Philip Maude thought his daughter 
was dead till I showed those pictures. He 
told me that when he saw the little photo- 
graph it was like looking at a picture of his 
dead wife. He saw how much I loved you, 
and how proud I was of you, and he had a 
struggle in his mind to know whether he 
ought to claim you after all these years; 
but he had decided that he must give you 
up when the fight came on, and the decision 
was taken out of his hands. The reason he 
sent for me at the last was that he had, a 
few weeks before he enlisted, got notice of 
a small inheritance that had fallen to him 
in England. It won’t be more than twenty- 
five thousand dollars — ^five thousand 
pounds, he called it — ^but he made his will, 
and gave me his papers so that you might 
prove your right to it, and he said that you 
might want to go home to your own people 


246 


THE GIRLS OF 


in England. He sent you this ring, and 
this broken watch chain — ^the watch itself 
was shattered by the bullet that gave him 
his death wound.” 

Elizabeth took the ring and chain he 
handed her and wept over them. They 
seemed to bring the father she had never 
consciously seen very close to her. It was 
not as though he took this father’s place, 
but rather as if he were some one among 
her ancestors, far back, almost in another 
life. 

hope I may go there some time,” she 
said at last. But you and mother are the 
only father and mother I can ever have — 
and my home must be here with you.” 


The Spooners stayed on in the old adobe 
through the winter. There was little to 
do at the ranch, and they were really more 
comfortable where they were. The first 
installment of Elizabeth’s income arrived 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


247 


from England about holiday time, and made 
things most wonderfully joyous in the 
Spooner family. It was comical to see how 
the new state of affairs impressed Maudie 
Pratt. Grandmother’s diamond ring be- 
came a small matter indeed compared to 
the small packet of really excellent old 
jewelry that was forwarded to Elizabeth. 
The fact that she added Maude to her 
name, simply calling herself Elizabeth 
Maude Spooner, was rather a disappoint- 
ment. Maudie Pratt, under similar cir- 
cumstances, would have promptly dropped 
the Spooner altogether. 

The wise little mother looked on and 
breathed many a sigh of thankfulness that 
Elizabeth’s good fortune had not come to 
her before she was tried and proven. When 
she saw her daughter choose wisely, and 
behave modestly, and carry her new honors 
with simple graciousness, she was aware 
that the year of discipline which had pro- 


248 


THE GIRLS OF 


ceeded the reward, had made it a reward 
indeed. 

When they all went out again to the 
ranch, Elizabeth insisted on investing some 
of her money in making the home beautiful 
and comfortable for them all. Harvey 
Grannis admired her greatly for doing so, 
yet he was in some sense jealous, and being 
a man of means he attempted, with a 
simplicity that sometimes made them all 
laugh, to match any act of generosity on 
Elizabeth’s part with one of his own. 
There was soon a commodious, well-built 
house, a beautiful and properly irrigated 
lawn, with beds of brilliant flowers where 
once only the cactus could be coaxed to 
bloom. These out-door luxuries were made 
possible by that almost unattainable thing 
in such a country — ^plenty of water, for 
Harvey Grannis made his namesake a deed 
to the pasture containing the big water-hole. 
More land was bought and added to the 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


249 


ranch, as Captain Spooner prospered, and 
with the luck of ^him that hath,’ money 
came in until the Spooner brand was per- 
haps the best in the country, and of such 
fine quality that it was the pride of old 
Jonah’s heart. 

The question of education was one of the 
first things to come up in the affairs of 
these young people, and Efizabeth declared 
that her income was to be used for schooling 
the whole bunch — and in the bunch she in- 
cluded Roy Lambert. That independent 
young man, however, preferred to work 
his way, as many an independent American 
boy has done before him. He chose an 
agricultural college, for he believed that the 
cattle business would gradually diminish, 
and that all of the ranches would be forced 
into more or less farming as the years went 
on. His ideas have proved correct, and as 
he is a skilled and educated farmer, and a 
natural manager. Captain Spooner has never 


250 


THE GIRLS OF 


seen the time when he was willing to give 
up the claim they had on him at the time 
that Mrs. Spooner called him her adopted 
son. 

Most laughable of all, Harvey Grannis 
takes a great pride and personal satisfaction 
in Roy’s success. To hear him talk about 
it one would think he had brought the boy 
west and placed him in his sister’s home — 
as indeed he did, though quite unwittingly. 
With the lapse of years Harvey has become 
gentler in his dealings with people, and 
more amenable. If he ever quarrels — and 
being Harvey Grannis, of course he does 
sometimes — ^the Babe immediately acts as 
peacemaker, and he declares that his nieces 
are the finest girls in the state of Texas, and 
that the Babe is to inherit every acre and 
hoof of his possessions! 

These greater advantages came to the 
Babe earlier than to the other girls, and she 
was the only one of the three who cared to 


SILVER SPUR RANCH 


251 


go to an eastern college and take a degree. 
She was preparing herself for her chosen 
career as a writer of stories for children, 
finding in that work free vent for her ex- 
urbant fancy. 

The year Ruth was nineteen she visited 
Mary in Oklahoma, and came back engaged 
to her brother-in-law’s brother, a young 
ranchman of good looks and qualities, and 
fairly prosperous. She now lives on a 
ranch of her own, and, with Mary, makes 
frequent visits to the home folks, where the 
circle is still unbroken, even old Jonah still 
being spry and happy, and delighting in re- 
lating his wonderful war stories as of old. 

When Ehzabeth finally left for England, 
partly to see her people — ^who consisted of 
somewhat distant relatives, and partly for 
a course of study, Roy felt that he would 
not be honorable in asking her to consent 
to an engagement. He told her that he 
was sure she would find her ideals changing 


252 


THE GIRLS OF 


very much when she was among her own 
people, in such surroundings as were really 
befitting to her. 

But she came back to Silver Spur, a well- 
trained and popular painter of miniatures, 
having chosen this for her profession. She 
came back to Roy, and to the dear parents 
who were, after all, more her own people 
than those she had left behind her in Eng- 
land. 

And it turned out that Elizabeth’s real 
profession is not art but home-making. She 
and Roy are married and live still at Silver 
Spur, perfectly happy with each other, and 
radiating happiness about them by the love 
and forethought of beautiful, unselfish 
natures. 


(The End.) 




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